How Health Technology Innovations, Inc. is using AI to accelerate pharma research
The world is rapidly transforming with new applications of AI across numerous industries. I’ve been fascinated by the advancement of AI in the world of pharma research in particular, given the complex process to identify an early drug candidate, conduct preclinical research and run phases of clinical trials before reaching mass market introduction.
We recently discussed pharma within our paper on semiconductor requirements for AI advancement. I am reminded of this quote from Oii’s CEO and founder Bob Rogers:
“For each application area in drug development, the speedups reported by AI vendors are 3x to 10x. These accelerations by themselves are significant, but the real magic lies in the fact that every step of the drug development process is currently built from interlocking, inefficient human tasks. Replacement with AI tooling will result in wholesale reductions in the time it takes to propose, test, and report on new drugs in the market.”
So where is the low-hanging fruit? I’d argue that one is the world of microscopy, where early stage research is performed under electron microscopes to seek information about the chemical structures of compounds for potential efficacy to target disease. This stage of the process is incredibly human intensive with work that – frankly – can be done faster and with more precision by AI visualization techniques.
Enter Health Technology Innovations, Inc. (HTI), a National Science Foundation-funded AI operation that is targeting the space with collaborations with the leading microscope vendors and research institutions. Led by industry veteran Tuan Phamdo, HTI has built a comprehensive Cryo-FAST software platform that helps accelerate pharma research. According to the company’s claims, HTI has driven average screening time from six hours to 5 minutes, halved scope collection time, and cut annual lab costs for this function by 50%. Today, the folks at HTI announced the fantastic news that their software is ready for mass market adoption as a 1.0 offering.
This advancement has gotten the attention of large players in the sector. Gatan, JEOL, and Thermo Fischer – all major players in electron microscopy – have collaborated with HTI on the delivery of this solution. The Northwest Cryo-EM center at Oregon Health Sciences University have also deeply engaged, and I’d expect to start seeing major research labs deploying HTI’s software in tight integration with their scope of choice.
What’s the TechArena take? Well, we’ll go where this blog started. AI is a massive disruptive force, and solutions like HTI’s will help advance scientific discovery at record pace. We’re excited to see this as a proof point of the larger transformation happening in pharma and can’t wait to see societal benefits from solution adoption. We also expect HTI to become much better known quickly in the world of pharma research as a player that is delivering real technology to customers with the help and support of industry leaders. We can’t wait to hear more about solution deployments in the months ahead.
The world is rapidly transforming with new applications of AI across numerous industries. I’ve been fascinated by the advancement of AI in the world of pharma research in particular, given the complex process to identify an early drug candidate, conduct preclinical research and run phases of clinical trials before reaching mass market introduction.
We recently discussed pharma within our paper on semiconductor requirements for AI advancement. I am reminded of this quote from Oii’s CEO and founder Bob Rogers:
“For each application area in drug development, the speedups reported by AI vendors are 3x to 10x. These accelerations by themselves are significant, but the real magic lies in the fact that every step of the drug development process is currently built from interlocking, inefficient human tasks. Replacement with AI tooling will result in wholesale reductions in the time it takes to propose, test, and report on new drugs in the market.”
So where is the low-hanging fruit? I’d argue that one is the world of microscopy, where early stage research is performed under electron microscopes to seek information about the chemical structures of compounds for potential efficacy to target disease. This stage of the process is incredibly human intensive with work that – frankly – can be done faster and with more precision by AI visualization techniques.
Enter Health Technology Innovations, Inc. (HTI), a National Science Foundation-funded AI operation that is targeting the space with collaborations with the leading microscope vendors and research institutions. Led by industry veteran Tuan Phamdo, HTI has built a comprehensive Cryo-FAST software platform that helps accelerate pharma research. According to the company’s claims, HTI has driven average screening time from six hours to 5 minutes, halved scope collection time, and cut annual lab costs for this function by 50%. Today, the folks at HTI announced the fantastic news that their software is ready for mass market adoption as a 1.0 offering.
This advancement has gotten the attention of large players in the sector. Gatan, JEOL, and Thermo Fischer – all major players in electron microscopy – have collaborated with HTI on the delivery of this solution. The Northwest Cryo-EM center at Oregon Health Sciences University have also deeply engaged, and I’d expect to start seeing major research labs deploying HTI’s software in tight integration with their scope of choice.
What’s the TechArena take? Well, we’ll go where this blog started. AI is a massive disruptive force, and solutions like HTI’s will help advance scientific discovery at record pace. We’re excited to see this as a proof point of the larger transformation happening in pharma and can’t wait to see societal benefits from solution adoption. We also expect HTI to become much better known quickly in the world of pharma research as a player that is delivering real technology to customers with the help and support of industry leaders. We can’t wait to hear more about solution deployments in the months ahead.
