Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) is sharpening its focus on generative biology, an emerging discipline that can accelerate protein drug discovery.
The company describes generative biology as “a revolutionary approach to drug discovery and development” that enlists the help of AI and machine learning to design novel protein therapeutics.
Although the term generative biology may be new, Amgen has invested in the marriage of wet lab high throughput automation and dry lab computational biology for decades.
A recently created internal team known as the Digital Biologics Discovery Group aims to expand its focus on generative biology. Leading that group is Alan Russell, who is currently Amgen’s vice president of biologics. Before joining the company, Russell founded and led the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He also created and led the Disruptive Health Technology Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.