Today Basel is crowded with some of the top business and research leaders representing a young and rapidly growing industry of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare and pharmaceutical research. They come together to announce mission and launch activities of a global Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH), which is to become a leading international organization for advancing artificial intelligence innovations in Drug Discovery, Clinical Research, Diagnostics, Precision Medicine and other key areas of pharmaceutical research and healthcare. The newly formed alliance will be a voice of the industry in matters of education, lobbying for policies and regulations, facilitating investment, and promoting AI-innovations among top drug makers and healthcare institutions.

Boston-based LifeMine Therapeutics, a fresh new drug discovery startup, just announced a $55 million Series A financing from a number of life sciences investors, including WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Foresite Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Arch Ventures, Boyu Capital, Blue Pool Capital, Merck Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments.

Understanding and controlling inflammation processes has become a central goal in modern medical research. A number of companies developing novel anti-inflammatory drugs has emerged to grow on the wave of recent research findings.

Integrins are a group of transmembrane receptors playing a major role in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions. When triggered, integrin receptors transduce signals to the interior of the cell, providing quick and flexible “status update” about chemical composition and mechanical status of the ECM. It results in a cellular response, such as a change in the cell shape, regulation of the cell cycle, adjusting motility, or adding new receptors to the cell membrane.

A billionaire Sean Parker, known as a founder of Facebook and Napster, has steeply entered Life Sciences industry to fund the world’s first-ever CRISPR/Cas9 trial, backed by US federal authorities. Upon success, the probability of which is now hard to assess, this technology can revolutionize the way cancer and many other diseases are treated. This time, Sean Parker is playing a bigger game than ever, however, uncertainty is huge.