Accenture Ventures, a strategic arm of Accenture (NYSE: ACN), recently announced its investment in Turbine, a forward-thinking predictive simulation company dedicated to interpreting human biology. This investment aims to bolster Turbine’s capabilities in providing valuable biological insights to global biopharma companies. Turbine’s flagship technology, the Simulated Cell™ platform, utilizes machine learning to unravel the intricate molecular interactions within human cells. By conducting virtual experiments on a scale unattainable in the physical realm, Turbine uncovers disease mechanisms and predicts responses to therapies, crucial for advancing drug development.
Tom Lounibos, Accenture Ventures’ global lead, highlighted the growing significance of advanced technology and digital capabilities in the biopharma sector. He emphasized that Turbine’s AI-driven platform has proven instrumental in unlocking high-quality biological insights for clients across the industry.
Turbine’s platform is undergoing validation with leading pharmaceutical firms to identify promising drug targets, optimize patient selection for therapies, and explore combination therapy strategies. This empowers Turbine to unveil potential treatments that might remain obscured otherwise, including drugs effective in laboratory settings but likely to fail in clinical trials.
Petra Jantzer, Ph.D., senior managing director at Accenture Life Sciences, emphasized Turbine’s platform as a valuable asset for biopharma companies, facilitating the development of targeted treatments. The investment underscores Accenture’s commitment to fostering innovation in AI-based drug discovery, ultimately aiming to enhance patient care.
Szabolcs Nagy, co-founder and CEO of Turbine, stressed the importance of overcoming ethical and technological challenges in utilizing AI for drug discovery. He highlighted Turbine’s Simulated Cells as a scalable solution to represent the complexity of human diseases better than traditional experimental models, which often exhibit biases and scalability limitations. Nagy expressed optimism about leveraging Accenture’s expertise to expand Turbine’s market reach and enhance its simulation platform, benefiting the entire biopharma industry.
Turbine’s inclusion in Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight program signifies a strategic partnership aimed at leveraging disruptive enterprise technologies. Through Project Spotlight, Turbine gains access to Accenture’s domain expertise and enterprise clients, fostering innovation and technology adoption. Other companies in Project Spotlight include QuantHealth, Virtonomy, and Ocean Genomics.
While the terms of the investment remain undisclosed, the collaboration between Accenture and Turbine holds promise for advancing AI-driven drug discovery and revolutionizing the biopharma landscape.
