Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent the leading cause of death worldwide, with 17.9 million deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). To tackle this challenge, the startup CardiaTec, born out of the University of Cambridge, is using artificial intelligence to discover new treatments. This week, the company announced it had secured $6.5 million in seed funding to advance its research on these diseases.
The role of AI in drug discovery
AI is beginning to transform the pharmaceutical industry, especially in drug discovery. By analyzing vast amounts of biological data, AI models can predict how different chemical compounds interact with the human body, speeding up the identification of potential drug candidates.
Founded in 2021 by Raphael Peralta and Thelma Zablocki, both graduates in biotechnology and bioengineering, and in collaboration with Namshik Han, an expert in AI and computational biology, CardiaTec focuses on decoding the biology behind cardiovascular diseases. The company aims to reduce the high costs of drug development, which can reach $2.2 billion, with a 90% failure rate in clinical trials, according to Deloitte.
Collaboration with hospitals and data collection
One of CardiaTec's key strategies is building a massive database of human heart tissue, in collaboration with 65 hospitals across the UK and the US. These tissues, collected from patients and deceased individuals, allow the company to compare healthy tissue with damaged tissue, such as arteries affected by heart attacks. This information is crucial for feeding computational models that aim to understand the molecular mechanisms driving heart disease.
“Historically, access to human tissue has been complicated due to ethical and logistical issues, but now hospital infrastructures allow us to obtain these tissues and generate the necessary data,” Peralta explained. With this vast amount of biological data, including genetic, epigenetic, and proteomic information, CardiaTec hopes to identify new targeted and personalized treatments.
Although AI-developed drugs have yet to reach the market, the promise of this technology has generated significant interest. In recent months, various startups have raised significant amounts of funding to advance in this field. A notable example is Insilico Medicine, which has developed a drug candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using AI.
With a particular focus on cardiovascular diseases—an area rarely addressed by other AI companies that usually focus on oncology or neurological diseases—CardiaTec has a unique opportunity to impact a field with great medical need. The recent funding will allow the company to continue data collection, validate its therapeutic models, and advance in identifying drug candidates, a process that will still take several years.
