Centella accelerates drug discovery with human and machine intelligence

Hyderabad: To integrate artificial intelligence into drug discovery, Centella AI Therapeutics is an AI-first drug discovery startup founded by practicing scientists with real-time drug discovery expertise. Centella’s proprietary Generative AI engine, powered by Chemical Language Models (CLMs), generates drug-like molecules with desired properties.

Among the 18,000 diseases notified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 17,500 lack any available therapies. The process of discovering a new drug typically requires 10 to 15 years of research and development, accompanied by a minimum investment of $2.5 billion. This underscores a significant gap in meeting the medical needs of numerous diseases, says Dr Riyaz, one of the founding members and chief scientific officer of Centella AI Therapeutics. To prevent pancreatic cancer, the Centella AI startup has collaborated with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) for the past three years, and they have published numerous research papers in various peer-reviewed journals.

Three years ago, a team led by Dr Riyaz Syed, founder and CEO; Dr Poorna Chandra, co-founder; Ausaf, tech co-founder; and Yugandhar Reddy, Chief Operating Officer (COO), initiated the Centella AI startup. Seeking funding for their venture, they approached JNTU, which not only provided the necessary space but also supported their efforts. The team, comprising 12 scientists, worked diligently and successfully accomplished the challenging task of developing a drug-like molecule for pancreatic cancer.

“Our concerted efforts have borne fruit, enabling us to significantly reduce the time and effort required to achieve this accomplishment," says Dr Riyaz Syed.

In a collaborative initiative, Centella AI has partnered with prestigious institutions, including the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the University of Texas in Houston. Their shared commitment revolves around the co-development of therapeutic assets specifically targeting neurological and oncological diseases.

Centella is seed-funded by D-Labs, Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, for a total of `25 lakhs and `5 lakhs from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (IT), Government of India, and jointly incubated by the Directorate of Entrepreneurship Innovation and Startups (DEIS), Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, the Atal Innovation Centre-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), and the National Association of Software Companies (Nasscom) GenAI India. Centella has recently secured a significant angel investment of USD 250k (`2 crore), earmarked for bolstering our technological infrastructure and patenting our cutting-edge technology.