AI Program for Drug Discovery

Democratize AI-based drug discovery in academia

What We Do

The mission of AID at Michigan State University (MSU) is to build a collaboration of AI, big data and the local drug discovery community, train the next generation of scientists with specialized expertise, and ultimately evolve into a sustainable research and education program. To achieve research excellence, AID leverages emerging big data (e.g., single cell and spatial transcriptomics, electronic health records), state-of-the-art AI methods (e.g., graph neural network, transfer learning, deep reinforcement learning), and advanced preclinical models (e.g., ex vivo tissue slice culture, organoids). AID takes a novel, previously unexplored patient-centric approach where drugs are proposed based on the RNA features derived from patients and are subsequently validated in the models derived from patient tissues. AID supports the repurposing of existing drugs for new indications in order to expedite the discovery and approval process, as well as the discovery of novel compounds, which may take more time but offer new therapeutic approaches and intellectual property. One key competency for AID is its unique transcriptomics-based drug discovery platform developed by our team members.

RNA-Based Drug Discovery Platform

How We Make Discovery

Technologies Visual

*IPF is used as an example.

Drug Discovery Pipeline

Indication Lead Investigators Status Goal
HCC Samuel So / Mei-Sze Chua (Stanford) Graduated Novel
DIPG Rintaro Hashizume (UAB) PK/In Vivo Novel
IPF Xiaopeng Li (MSU), Reda Girgis (Corewell) Lead Optimization Repurposing/Novel
Prostate cancer bone metastasis Xiaohong Li (Utoledo) In vivo Novel
Mesenchymal stem cell dedifferentiation Ling Huang (HFH) In vitro Repurposing
Endometriosis Asgi Fazleabas (MSU) In vitro Repurposing
AML Sachi Horibata (MSU) In vitro Repurposing
Alzheimer’s disease Dave Morgan (MSU) In silico Repurposing
Pediatric MODS Surender Rajasekaran (Corewell) Signature discovery Repurposing
Cardiogenic shock Brian Trethowan/Renzo Loyaga Rendon (Corewell) Signature discovery Repurposing
KRAS inhibitor Ling Huang (HFH) Signature discovery Novel

*Status: Signature discovery --> In silico --> In vitro --> Lead optimization --> PK --> In vivo --> Graduated

Core Team

Bin Chen

Bin Chen, PhD

PI | AI Drug Discovery | Experiences at Stanford, UCSF, Novartis, Pfizer, and Merck

Edmund Ellsworth

Edmund Ellsworth, PhD

co-PI | Medicinal Chemistry | Co-Director of Drug Discovery Program at MSU

Rick Neubig

Rick Neubig, MD,PhD

co-PI | Drug Discovery | Director of Drug Discovery Program at MSU (Emeritus)

Jiayu Zhou

Jiayu Zhou, PhD

co-PI | AI Research & Education | Computer Science and Engineering

Yuehua Cui

Yuehua Cui, PhD

co-PI | AI Research & Education | Statistics and Probability

Dmitry Leshchiner

Dmitry Leshchiner, MD

Lead | AI Drug Discovery