Artificial Intelligence has become increasingly impactful in the life sciences over the last few years, pushing scientific boundaries, as exemplified by the recent success of AlphaFold2. In this talk, I will provide an overview of how AI has impacted drug design in the last few years, where we are now and what progress we can reasonably expect in the coming years. The presentation will focus on deep learning-based molecular de novo design; however, aspects of using multi-agent systems and the integration of AI with automation will also be covered.
Ola Engkvist, PhD, is Executive Director and Head of Molecular AI within Discovery Sciences at AstraZeneca R&D, where he leads the development and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate drug design. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is an ELLIS fellow at the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems and a 2025 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. He holds an adjunct professorship in machine learning and AI for drug design at Chalmers University of Technology, serves as a Trustee of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, and is recognized for his work in pharmaceutical innovation.
