AI and the Future of the Drug Discovery Research: Opportunities and Challenges
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Central
The convergence of artificial intelligence and biological research marks a profound turning point in how we understand, engineer, and manipulate life at the molecular scale. AI systems, particularly those capable of predicting protein structures, modeling biological pathways, and designing novel therapeutics are dramatically accelerating the drug-discovery pipeline, compressing timelines from years to months or even weeks. These advances offer extraordinary potential for tackling thorny global health challenges, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium infections, and other complex diseases that have long resisted traditional approaches.
At the same time, tools such as AlphaFold and emerging protein-design platforms are transforming how researchers conceive and prototype new molecules. Yet these systems come with important limitations: model hallucinations, overconfidence, data biases, and the difficulty of validating in silico predictions in the real world. Interestingly, some forms of “hallucination” also open creative avenues such as enabling the exploration of novel protein folds, new drug scaffolds, and unconventional therapeutic ideas that would be impossible to imagine through human intuition alone. Understanding when AI’s creativity is useful, and when it is misleading, is becoming a core scientific skill.
This panel brings together a diverse group of scientists, technologists, and policy leaders to examine not only the promise of AI-driven drug design but also the challenges that lie ahead. We will explore how academia can train future researchers to use and critically interrogate AI tools; how industry can integrate computational design with robust experimental validation; and how regulators can adapt frameworks that were never built to evaluate machine-generated biological insights. We will also look at how emerging funding bodies, such as Advance Research Invention Agency (ARIA) in the UK and similar initiatives around the world are investing in high-risk, high-reward innovation to accelerate breakthroughs while addressing safety, equity, and public-trust concerns.
As we enter this new era of AI-augmented biology, the central question is not whether AI will reshape drug discovery, but how we ensure it does so responsibly, creatively, and inclusively. The message is one of grounded optimism: AI is not something to fear. It brings immense opportunity alongside real risks. By acknowledging both, we can harness its power to build a healthier and more equitable future.
Welcome: Prof Helen Lawton Smith, CIMR, Birkbeck
Speakers
- Prof Sanjib Bhakta, Birkbeck: “Evidence vs. Estimation: Integrating Laboratory Testing and AI-Prediction to Accelerate Antibiotic Discovery.”
- Dr Manoj Saxena, Birkbeck: “Data is king - Protein Structure–Based Drug Discovery in the Age of AI”.
- Dr Alice Pettitt, Advanced Research + Invention Agency: “ARIA's current and future AI programmes “
Biographies:
Sanjib Bhakta is a Molecular Microbiologist and Biochemist specialising in novel therapeutics and drug repurposing to combat antibiotic resistance and persistence in tuberculosis (TB) and related infectious bacterial diseases. He has published over 120 research articles in leading journals.
Following a BSc (Hons), MSc, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology & Biochemistry from leading universities and research institutions in India, Dr Bhakta joined the Oxford University Division of Medical Sciences as an Oxford University Innovation Senior Research Scholar. Shortly after, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship. He graduated from The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, completing a second doctoral degree (DPhil in Pharmacology) and received a “Sir William Paton Prize” from the Oxford University Division of Medical Sciences.
He attained his first academic appointment (2006) at the ISMB as a University Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer, Reader and then full Professor in 2019. He has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK since 2008 after achieving a PGCHE from the University of London. To date, he has supervised several PhD students, post-doctoral scientists, a UNESCO-L’Oréal “Women in Science” Fellow, an ERS-International Fellow, an ICMR-International Fellow, an ASEM-DUO Fellow in his Laboratory. He was awarded a Cipla Distinguished Fellowship in Pharmaceutical Sciences and an ASEM-DUO Professorial Fellowship. His original research on tackling AMR in TB was published in Nature Scientific Report (top 100 most-read articles in 2018) and was featured in BBC Health News and VetTimes, Professor Bhakta is a Steering Group member of the ISMB and UCL-TB and a member of the NTM Network UK and Acid Fast Club, UK.
He is a Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Antibiotics. As a UKRI STEM ambassador, Professor Bhakta has volunteered for the Wellcome Trust-funded programme “Researchers in Residence”, a winner of “I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here” 2017, participated in the British Science Museum “News & Views” programme, the winner of a Microbiology Society Outreach Prize, and winner of the Dissertation Supervisor of the Year 2024. In addition, most recently, Prof Bhakta’s research on Persian Shallots was filmed for Channel 4’s popular programme “Food Unwrapped”, and his lab was also featured in The Royal Society of Biology’s termly magazine: ‘The Biologist’.
Manoj Saxena is a molecular biologist and biotechnology researcher whose work focuses on innovative protein engineering solutions for human health. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Puerto Rico in 2017, where he developed a novel protein-based delivery system designed to induce targeted cell death in cancer cells. He previously completed an M.S. in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology at Penn State University, investigating immunogenic protein complexes in Bordetella bronchiseptica, and holds a Master’s in Biotechnology from HNB Garhwal University in India.
Dr. Saxena has led research spanning therapeutic protein design, high-throughput expression platforms, and cell-free systems. He collaborates with the biotech company Nuclera to advance rapid protein production technologies on accelerating therapeutic protein engineering. His work has been supported by multiple competitive awards, including the Ember Fellowship (2025–2026) from Renaissance Philanthropy as activation partner of ARIA for developing artificial mitochondrial and electron-transport-chain membrane proteins targeting rare mitochondrial diseases and stroke, Innovation seed funding from Birkbeck, University of London, and a research innovation award from the University of Puerto Rico.
Alice Pettitt is a Frontier Specialist at the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), where she works with the Programme Directors to shape current and future ARIA programmes. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biophysics from University College London where she was combining computational and experimental approaches to characterise intrinsically disordered proteins. Her interests span engineering biology to climate adaptation. Before joining ARIA she was a Venture Fellow at the Creator Fund (a pre-seed, deep-tech VC fund) and a Founder’s Associate at a bootstrapped start-up building a business-to-business marketplace.
Further Reading
- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03965-x
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-digital-self/202501/harnessing-hallucinations-to-make-ai-more-creative
- https://www.marks-clerk.com/insights/latest-insights/102l01m-generative-ai-designs-new-antibiotics-but-who-owns-the-invention/
- https://www.aria.org.uk/ai-scientist/
Contact name: Marion Frenz
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