New AI models to diagnose and treat cancer and other incurable diseases will be made possible thanks to joint public-private investment giving flexible funding to British AI firms and researchers.
The UK government has unveiled £82.6m in new flexible forms of research funding, plus a new commitment to give UK researchers access to cutting-edge computing resources as part of a plan to unlock the power of AI.
Two of the three projects benefiting from this support, which is helping to pioneer new ways of conducting research, will harness the power of AI to develop treatments and diagnostics for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.
The government is putting £37.9 million backing behind three innovative British research projects, the Research Ventures Catalyst (RVC) programme. Together with a further £44.7 million in co-investment across the three projects, from other sources, this makes for a total £82.6 million backing.
The RVC programme is delivering novel ways of funding groundbreaking research, such as endowments, which are flexible and reflect the real needs of cutting-edge innovators. Too often, inflexible funding has been a barrier to some of the most innovative and creative research or has been an obstacle to new innovative businesses looking to scale-up. The RVC programme will support pioneering work training AI on the NHS’s vast pool of cancer data, drug discovery research, and more.
The projects being supported by the RVC programme include:
PharosAI
£18.9 million government funding plus £24.7 million co-investment. PharosAI will bring together decades of NHS and Biobank data and host it on a unified, powerful, secure, AI platform. This will revolutionise cancer care by accelerating the development of the next generation of AI models which will deliver new breakthroughs for diagnosing and treating the disease – transforming outcomes for patients and saving lives.
Professor Anita Grigoriadis, Professor of Molecular and Digital Pathology at King’s College London, CEO of PharosAI said: “AI has the potential to revolutionise cancer care. The UK has a real opportunity to be a major innovator, leading to faster diagnosis, novel and more targeted cancer treatments, and better-informed healthcare for patients.
“PharosAI will democratise cancer AI and create an ecosystem to navigate the path to AI-powered precision medicine. Thanks to the RVC programme, we will build an unique operational approach between King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Barts Health Trust and industry partners. Our innovative collaboration will accelerate scientific breakthroughs and bring vastly improved cancer care to tomorrow’s patients.”
Bind Research
£12.9 million government funding plus £12.9 million co-investment. The team at Bind Research meanwhile will tap into AI to learn the rules of drugging currently undruggable proteins, offering hope to cure diseases that were once thought to be untreatable. It will do this by targeting disordered proteins associated with various diseases which could unlock scores of new avenues for treatment – potentially giving thousands of patients across the country a new lifeline.
Dr Gabi Heller, Dr Thomas Löhr, and Dr Gogulan Karunanithy, scientific co-founders, Bind Research said: “The Research Ventures Catalyst Programme has been a game changer for Bind Research. It allowed us to reimagine our approach by adopting a not-for-profit Focused Research Organisation model – a strategy that, until now, was largely uncharted territory in the UK.
“This innovative structure enables us to harness collective expertise to deliver AI-enhanced tools and datasets as public goods to advance our mission of making disordered proteins druggable for everyone.”
