UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company, entered into an early drug discovery collaboration with Aitia, focused on the discovery and validation of novel drug targets and drug candidates for Huntington’s disease.

The collaboration seeks to validate novel drug targets that are causally linked to clinical endpoints in Huntington’s disease. Aitia is involved in the application of Causal AI and “Digital Twins” to discover and develop new drugs.

The collaboration will combine the use of novel Huntington’s disease drug targets from Aitia’s Gemini Digital Twins with UCB’s expertise in drug research and preclinical model systems in neurodegeneration with the aim to accelerate the discovery of new therapies for people living with Huntington’s disease.

Colin Hill, CEO and co-founder of Aitia, said, “At Aitia, our mission is to discover the next generation of breakthrough drugs to improve outcomes for patients where there is high unmet need. We believe that Huntington’s disease is overdue for major disruption and breakthroughs from our Gemini Digital Twins which are created from large quantities of multi-omic patient data and causal AI.”

Hill added: “We’re excited to collaborate closely with UCB to gain deeper insights into the underlying mechanisms of this complex disease and hope to drive major advancements in drug discovery and development faster than ever before.”

“We are pleased to work with Aitia in a bid to unravel the circuity of this debilitating disease” said Dhaval Patel, executive vice president and chief scientific officer at UCB. “We see this collaboration as an investment in next generation science and technology, allowing us to accelerate our understanding of human pathobiology and explore the potential of developing novel medicines through AI.”