Recursion Pharmaceuticals has entered a research agreement with Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi, to deploy its drug repurposing platform to identify new uses for Sanofi’s clinical stage molecules across dozens of genetic diseases.

Recursion generates human cellular models of many diseases and uses computer vision to extract thousands of morphological measures at the level of individual cells. Molecules are then screened for their ability to rescue phenotypic defects associated with each disease. Recursion has already used the platform to generate an internal pipeline of candidates for a handful of genetic diseases, with a lead asset nearing IND for the treatment of Cerebral Cavernous Malformation.

Sanofi will provide Recursion with a number of small molecules, and Recursion will screen these molecules across its extensive and rapidly expanding library of genetic disease models. Sanofi Genzyme will have the option to develop products targeting any new indications identified.

“We are delighted to be working with Sanofi to rapidly find new uses for its assets, particularly given Sanofi Genzyme’s unparalleled expertise in rare diseases,” said Chris Gibson, chief executive officer, Recursion.

Blake Borgeson, chief technology officer, Recursion, said, “Rare diseases are the perfect targets for our unbiased, target-agnostic discovery platform as relatively little is known about these conditions. Our application of cutting edge machine-learning technology allows us to leverage experiments across biology to enable identification of new indications for our partners.”