Life Sciences
The Interdisciplinary Research Area Life Sciences (LS Area) aims to interface Machine Learning (ML), explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), and data science with life science disciplines including drug discovery and medical research.
The concept of Triangular AI forms a foundation of the LS Area. ML and other AI methods are applied to heterogeneous life science Data, which provide different scientific Contexts, and utilize Knowledge from different domains to tailor predictive modeling towards experimental design.
Explainable AI Enables New Insights
To impact life science research, ML must produce predictions that are transparent and understandable to an interdisciplinary audience. Otherwise, no experimental programs will follow up on theoretical work. Accordingly, the black box character of most ML models represents a major limitation of AI in the life sciences. Therefore, XAI represents a focal point of the LS Area for rationalizing predictions and translating them into experimentally testable hypotheses.
Central to the LS Area is the Life Science Informatics (LSI) Department at the b-it Center that has a strong track record in drug discovery data analytics and the development of computational methods for pharmaceutical research. Additional fields of study in the LS Area such as computer vision and visual analytics, healthcare informatics, or hybrid ML are represented by participating research groups from TU Dortmund University, Fraunhofer IAIS, and the University of Bonn.
Collaborative Alliance for Drug Discovery
The LS Area and the Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery (TüCAD2) initiated by the University of Tübingen have recently formed a collaborative alliance. TüCAD2is the leading academic drug discovery center in Germany, supported by the Excellence Initiative, with an outstanding track record of five drug candidates in clinical trials. The collaborative efforts concentrate on protein kinase drug discovery, with data analytics and ML carried out in Bonn and compound synthesis, biological testing, and pharmacology conducted in Tübingen.
Milestone projects of the LS Area such as this alliance substantially support and further increase the interdisciplinary orientation of the Lamarr Institute.
