Global consortium releases AI toolbox to unlock new Alzheimer's treatments

The Consortium for Biomedical Research and Artificial Intelligence in Neurodegeneration (C-BRAIN), a global collaboration of academic researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and philanthropic organizations of which Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is a founding member, today launched three open-source AI tools to accelerate research aimed at developing new treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Announced at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London, the tools synthesize Alzheimer's and neuroscience literature, surface insights from unpublished and so called "dark" or hidden data, and provide peer review-style feedback for researchers. WashU Medicine led the formation of the 17-member consortium.

C-BRAIN's mission is to build an "AI Biomedical Research Scientist" that works alongside human researchers to address a persistent challenge: more than 99% of Alzheimer's drug candidates fail in clinical trials. Despite decades of research, vital scientific knowledge remains fragmented across millions of published papers, massive complex datasets, and unpublished research results. AI provides scientists the capability to harness all this information toward a shared goal.

Leveraging the AI revolution with scientists' ability to generate enormous amounts of research results has created an incredible opportunity. The brain is immensely complex, but artificial intelligence inspired by the human brain can find relationships within massive amounts of data that a single human mind simply cannot hold. Our expectation is that discoveries made over the next few years will be breakthroughs that wouldn't be possible without AI."

Randall J. Bateman, MD, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology at WashU Medicine, one of the world's leading Alzheimer's researchers and the director and founder of C-BRAIN