Could AI and Automation Find Better Treatments for Cancer - and Maybe Aging? (cnn.com)
- Reference: 0177063901
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/0336255/could-ai-and-automation-find-better-treatments-for-cancer---and-maybe-aging
- Source link: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/health/video/cancer-treatment-labgenius-ai-robots-spc-digvid
The founder/CEO of London-based [2]LabGenius says their automated robotic system can assemble "thousands of different DNA constructs, each of which encodes a completely unique therapeutic molecule that we'll then test in the lab. This is something that historically would've had to have been done by hand." In short, CNN says, their system lets them "design and conduct experiments, and learn from them in a circular process that creates molecular antibodies at a rate far faster than a human researcher."
While many cancer treatments have debilitating side effects, CNN notes that LabGenius "reengineers therapeutic molecules so they can selectively target just the diseased cells." But more importantly, their founder says they've now discovered "completely novel molecules with over 400x improvement in [cell] killing selectivity."
A senior lecturer at Imperial College London tells CNN that LabGenius seems to have created an efficient process with seamless connections, identifying a series of antibodies that look like they can target cancer cells very selectively "that's as good as any results I've ever seen for this." (Although the final proof will be what happens when they test them on patients..) "And that's the next step for Labgenius," says CNN. "They aim to have their first therapeutics entering clinics in 2027."
Finally, CNN asks, if it succeeds is their potential beyond cancer treatment? "If you take one step further," says the company's CEO/founder, "you could think about knocking out senescent cells or aging cells as a way to treat the underlying cause of aging."
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/health/video/cancer-treatment-labgenius-ai-robots-spc-digvid
[2] https://labgeniustx.com/news/
Yes (Score:2)
AI can do a lot with the data that we already have. That's all it's good for really. Give it a bunch of data and it can make correlations. Probably the biggest one it will find is that scientists like to collect data on people that are likely to have cancer. oops
It's tar! (Score:2)
If they add tar as the additional component, then I'll be able to implement my special software to take a fraction of a penny from every transaction!
Re: It's tar! (Score:2)
The rare superman 3 callback.
Terrible Headline. (Score:2)
> Could AI and Automation Find Better Treatments for Cancer - and Maybe Aging?
Not "could", " are ", and the answer is a resounding "yes". Machine learning has been spitting out novel and potentially useful drug molecules for years now and automation has sped up DNA sequencing immeasurably, not to mention making it cheap enough that you can order a machine online and get something that will fit on your workbench.
More recently, AI has been applied to radiology - mammograms, specifically - and shows promise in detecting cancers smaller than a human doctor working alone could. Though this
Re: (Score:2)
> Knowing next to nothing about medical research or AI I wondered about applying LLMs to proteins; after all, DNA is just a language with four letters. But then I remembered Folding@Home and when I read a little about it I found that it is (or at least was) very difficult to predict how a protein folds itself up when just looking at the DNA sequence, and that it's the shape of a protein that determines what it does. I've no doubt that there are people around the world applying AI to this problem right now
Alphafold [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] [2]https://slashdot.org/index2.pl... [slashdot.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold
[2] https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=alphafold
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, a terrible headline but not for the reasons you list. Could AI do that? Yes, anything's possible. Could humans also do that? Yes.
Will AI do that? What difference does it make? We won't pay for medical care for serfs, and if you're not a billionaire you're a serf. Cancer treatments will be a billionaire's entitlement, who cares what they get.
Re: (Score:2)
The difficulty here is the amount spent on AI and the like vs. other research- which will have the most efficacy?
The promises of AI are far and wide, as if to justify spending even more at the expense of other things.
Yes, new tools are helpful in many disciplines, but that's not what is being sold here.
robotic experiment (Score:2)
From what I can see, they have some robotic machinery that takes arrays of antibody samples and inoculates a lot of petri dishes. Then they probably have a camera system that reviews the results in the dishes and decides what tweaks to make to their designer antibodies. I can definitely see how that would improve turnaround, and lots of iterations could lead to some things to try on mice.
Call me when they do (Score:2)
Otherwise you're just trying to griff people into investing in you.
So none of us are going to have jobs (Score:2)
So it's not really going to matter if AI finds a cure for cancer because we won't be able to afford it. It's sort of a catch-22.
I mean there are probably solutions to that problem but God knows we're not going to come up with them. And if we do some stupid little bauble or petty mortal panic will distract us until we're dead.
Have fun in the comments! List your favorite moral panics!