Eli Lilly and Company has unveiled Lilly TuneLab, an advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform designed to give biotech companies access to drug discovery models built on decades of Lilly’s proprietary research data.
The initial release features AI models trained on data worth more than $1 billion, making it one of the industry’s most valuable AI resources available to biotechnology companies.
"Lilly has spent decades building comprehensive datasets for drug discovery. Today, we're sharing the intelligence gained from that investment to help lift the tide of biotechnology research," said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer, and president, Lilly Research Laboratories and Lilly Immunology. "Lilly TuneLab was created to be an equalizer so that smaller companies can access some of the same AI capabilities used every day by Lilly scientists. By opening up access, we hope to accelerate the creation of new medicines for patients who need them."
The platform leverages Lilly’s complete drug disposition, safety, and preclinical datasets, which cover experimental results from hundreds of thousands of unique molecules. In exchange for access, biotech partners provide training data that continuously improves the models for all users, ultimately benefiting patients.
Lilly TuneLab uses federated learning, a secure method that allows partners to benefit from Lilly’s AI without compromising their proprietary data or Lilly’s. The platform was developed in collaboration with leading technology providers and AI/ML specialists. Lilly also plans to expand its capabilities, including the addition of exclusive in vivo small molecule predictive models.
Lilly TuneLab is part of the Lilly Catalyze360 suite, which also offers strategic funding through Lilly Ventures, laboratory facilities via Lilly Gateway Labs, and drug development support through Lilly ExploR&D.
"For many early-stage biotech companies, the promise of AI and machine learning in drug discovery remains just that — a promise. While the industry buzzes about the power of AI/ML to accelerate innovation, most small biotechs face a fundamental hurdle: they simply don't have access to the large-scale, high-quality data needed to impact decisions and train truly effective models," said Nisha Nanda, Ph.D., group vice president and head, Lilly Catalyze360. "With Lilly TuneLab we're not just sharing resources, we are also compressing decades of learning into instantly accessible intelligence. Through this platform, we can help our biotech partners unlock novel scientific insights, make smart development decisions earlier, and increase their likelihood of success."