Terray Therapeutics: The Future of Drug Discovery
In a sprawling laboratory in Monrovia, Calif., the future of drug discovery is unfolding. Terray Therapeutics is at the forefront of a new wave of companies harnessing artificial intelligence (A.I.) to revolutionize the way drugs are developed.
The laboratory at Terray is a marvel of miniaturized automation, where robots shuttle tiny tubes of fluids and scientists in blue coats monitor the machines. But the real magic happens at the nanoscale, where proteins and chemical molecules interact on custom silicon chips, generating massive amounts of data – 50 terabytes daily, to be exact.
This data factory is powered by A.I., which learns from patterns in the data to suggest potential drug candidates. The goal is to transform drug discovery from a painstaking artisanal craft to a more automated and precise process, speeding up the development of more effective drugs.
Terray is just one of many young companies in the pharmaceutical industry leveraging A.I. for drug discovery. The potential for A.I. in this field is enormous, with McKinsey & Company calling it a “once-in-a-century opportunity.”
While some A.I.-developed drugs are already in clinical trials, it’s still early days. The process of drug development is complex and time-consuming, with many candidate drugs failing in clinical trials. But companies like Terray are working to improve those odds, using A.I. to accelerate the preclinical stages of development.
The key to success lies in partnerships with established pharmaceutical companies, which provide funding and expertise for the later stages of drug development. Terray has partnerships with Bristol Myers Squibb and Calico Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Terray is focused on developing small-molecule drugs for inflammatory diseases, with the goal of having drugs in clinical trials by early 2026. The company’s sleek labs and cutting-edge technology are a far cry from the old days of academia, where data was stored on Excel spreadsheets and automation was a distant dream.
The ultimate test for Terray and its peers will be the impact they have on human health. As Dr. Jacob Berlin, co-founder and CEO of Terray, puts it, “The ultimate test for us, and the field in general, is if in 10 years you look back and can say the clinical success rate went way up and we have better drugs for human health.”
Terray Therapeutics is paving the way for a new era of drug discovery, where A.I. and automation are transforming the industry and bringing hope for better, more effective treatments for patients around the world.
