NEW YORK – ElevateBio on Monday said it has entered a multiyear collaboration with Amazon's cloud arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to create CRISPR-based gene-editing drugs with the help of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Waltham, Massachusetts-based ElevateBio said that through the collaboration, it aims to discover and develop CRISPR drugs for potentially thousands of complex monogenic and polygenic diseases using its gene-editing platform.
ElevateBio will use AWS's cloud infrastructure and machine-learning tool SageMaker to train protein language models that can analyze large datasets of protein and experimental data from its gene-editing and R&D technology business, ElevateBio Life Edit, to pinpoint treatment targets. Additionally, it will use AWS computing tools to analyze ElevateBio Life Edit's library of CRISPR systems to discover naturally occurring and synthetic custom CRISPR systems that can be used within new gene-editing drugs.
"The first wave of CRISPR therapies has focused on a small number of monogenic diseases caused by single-gene mutations," ElevateBio Chairman and CEO David Hallal said in a statement. "By bringing together AWS's powerful cloud computing and AI solutions with our CRISPR dataset, we are taking on the challenge of expanding CRISPR's application to thousands of more complex monogenic disorders as well as polygenic diseases, paving the way for potentially curative treatments across therapeutic areas."
The collaboration with AWS could underpin therapeutic development efforts for partnered programs and ElevateBio's internal pipeline, the company said.