AI-based model at IIIT-Delhi to detect carcinogens

NEW DELHI: Researchers from IIIT-Delhi have developed an Artificial Intelligence-based model to detect carcinogens in chemical structures, which could have importance for the pharma industry for the screening of new drugs.

The research on the software, named as Metabokiller, has also been published in Nature Chemical Biology, which is one of the most reputed journals in the field of Chemical Biology, said the researchers. 

Our latest work builds an AI model that could recognize the carcinogens (cancer-causing compounds) from the chemical structures.

This model utilizes a novel approach that specifically targets the biological and chemical properties associated with known carcinogens,” said Gaurav Ahuja, Assistant Professor, Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi.

Ahuja, along with Dr Debarka Sengupta, has developed six independent machine learning-based models that precisely scan every query compound for carcinogen-associated properties. Other clinical and research institutes such as IIT-Ropar, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, and CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, have also participated in the research.  

Ahuja said Metabokiller has vast importance and utilization in the pharma industry for the screening of new drugs.