AI drug discovery company Transcripta Bio announced on Friday that it has entered into a research collaboration with Microsoft Research to accelerate the discovery of disease-gene associations using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and large-scale transcriptomic data.

This collaboration combines Transcripta Bio's proprietary Drug-Gene Atlas, which contains over a billion gene responses and full-transcriptome data, and Microsoft Research's machine learning expertise with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic opportunities faster and with more certainty than conventional methods.

Transcripta Bio and Microsoft Research will analyse chemotranscriptomic datasets with a primary goal to identify candidate disease-gene associations supported by experimental evidence of gene expression modulation. The researchers hope to accelerate the path from discovery to clinical candidate selection, with the potential for fast-tracking and delivering new therapies to patients more efficiently.

Scott Saponas, senior director and deputy lab director, Microsoft Research Health Futures, said: "We are excited to collaborate with Transcripta Bio to leverage our expertise in rare disease genomics and AI, aiming to develop innovative methods for drug discovery that can significantly impact the treatment of rare diseases."

Dr. Chris Moxham, Transcripta Bio co-founder and CEO, added: "This collaboration with Microsoft Research enables us to scale our transcriptomics-driven approach, leveraging Microsoft's computational resources and AI expertise. Together, we are setting a new standard for the speed, certainty, and efficiency of drug discovery."