Genentech and NVIDIA partner for AI-driven drug discovery acceleration

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, has entered into a multi-year strategic research collaboration with NVIDIA, a prominent technology company, to propel drug discovery and development through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). This groundbreaking partnership aims to synergize Genentech's extensive biological and molecular datasets, research expertise, and AI capabilities with NVIDIA's world-leading accelerated computing capabilities.

The collaborative effort seeks to optimise Genentech's proprietary machine learning (ML) algorithms on NVIDIA's DGX Cloud platform, a training-as-a-service platform built on dedicated NVIDIA AI supercomputing and software. By doing so, the collaboration aims to forge a next-generation AI platform, expediting the discovery and delivery of novel therapies and medicines. Genentech's AI/ML teams, already active in various research areas, will benefit from NVIDIA's computing expertise to enhance and scale their models.

The collaboration goes beyond enhancing drug discovery; it also aims to accelerate Genentech's "lab in a loop" approach. This involves feeding extensive experimental data into computational models, enabling the uncovering of patterns and the generation of experimentally testable predictions. Scientists swiftly assess these predictions in the lab, and the results are fed back into the models, facilitating iterative development of improved therapies.

Importantly, the collaboration will leverage both publicly available and Genentech-proprietary data. Genentech will retain control over its proprietary data, ensuring its privacy and security. 

Through the integration of AI, Genentech envisions transforming drug development into a more efficient and impactful process, benefiting individuals by delivering therapeutics that can significantly improve lives.