Look­ing to solve pub­lic health crises through dis­cov­ery, Gates Foun­da­tion taps AI firm Ex­sci­en­tia to look for an­swers

De­spite as­tro­nom­i­cal ad­vances in med­i­cine over the past few decades, pub­lic health has con­tin­ued to con­found re­searchers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in de­vel­op­ing na­tions. Could AI help crack the code on cheap and ef­fec­tive drug dis­cov­ery for pub­lic health? A Gates-backed AI firm is look­ing to find out.

The Bill & Melin­da Gates Foun­da­tion award­ed UK-based AI out­fit Ex­sci­en­tia a $4.2 mil­lion grant to help iden­ti­fy ex­ist­ing ther­a­pies and new mol­e­cules that could be used to tack­le pub­lic health crises, in­clud­ing malar­ia and tu­ber­cu­lo­sis as well as ma­ter­nal and in­fant mor­tal­i­ty through con­tra­cep­tives.

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