UCT gets R26m Google grant for AI drug research
UCT is among 17 organisations worldwide selected for Google.org’s “AI for Science” challenge, sharing a $36 million funding pool.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has received a $1.6 million (approximately R26.4 million) grant from Google.org to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) platform focused on enhancing medicine selection and dosing for African patients. This funding is part of Google.org's Impact Challenge: "AI for Science", which awarded a total of $36 million to 17 organizations worldwide.
UCT's H3D drug discovery and development centre, led by Professor Kelly Chibale, will spearhead the project in collaboration with researchers from UCT's Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences and the UCT AI Initiative. Chibale emphasizes the importance of incorporating Africa's genetic diversity into pharmacogenomics research, as current evidence has predominantly been generated elsewhere.
The AI platform, AfriPGx-AI, aims to investigate genetic differences among African populations in processing medicines, with the goal of improving treatment outcomes. The project will focus on medicines for tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria, which significantly impact the African continent. By combining AI predictions with laboratory results and mathematical modeling, AfriPGx-AI seeks to inform medicine selection and dosing, with the final decision-support tools designed for low-bandwidth environments.
The project will also train African researchers in AI, bioinformatics, and pharmacogenomics, ensuring broad accessibility of the developed software, AI models, and curated datasets.
Written by urgent.news from ITWeb's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
