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uses artificial intelligence for drug design led by top scientists
and global collaborations. And, conveniently, it’s located near
Jhamandas’ lab.
Tyrrell immediately wanted to partner with Jhamandas.
“There’s been a few times in my career where I saw certain
results that really said: ‘This is different,’” says Tyrrell. It gave
him the same visceral feeling he had experienced years prior,
when he sensed he was on the brink of something big. That
thing was Lamivudine, the first oral antiviral agent to treat
chronic hepatitis B. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant
GlaxoSmithKline has sold around 11 billion doses of that
medication since it was released in 1998.
As part of the partnership, Jhamandas gained access to the
Li Ka Shing commercialization hub and computational drug
discovery platform, which hosts a slate of AI-powered super-
computers that create the formulations that can lead to actual
medications. Using that technology, the team screened seven
million compounds (created by a team of in-house medicinal
chemists) in just three weeks. “This is a very demanding area,
requiring the involvement of many specialist drug developers,
particularly as these drugs need to cross the blood-brain barrier,”
says Sir Michael Houghton, director of the Li Ka Shing Applied
Virology Institute and 2020 Nobel Prize winner.
Along the way, Jhamandas has drawn increased funding from
multiple sources and formed additional partnerships, such as
with Applied Pharmaceutical Innovations, a local, not-for-
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Dr. Wen Fu (sitting) and Dr. Aarti Patel help Dr. Jhamandas
profit organization that can help them develop a drug for
market. Though he acknowledges that his team is not as well
positioned as the multinational pharmaceutical companies,
Jhamandas believes they will move their agenda forward. “The
end game,” he says, “is to develop a partnership with Big Pharma
so you can move this quickly for patients and their families.”
Identifying and launching a treatment for any
health condition, let alone Alzheimer’s, is a lengthy process.
But persistence can pay off. Jhamandas and his team now
realize that their original drug formulations may actually be
brought to market. Over the next few years, their work will be
subjected to toxicity studies and several phases of trials before
approvals by Health Canada. But there’s potential for either an
injection, pill or possibly both to become prescribed treatments.
While Jhamandas is persistent, being patient may be more
challenging. He feels a sense of urgency to keep moving before
age and all its related complications catch up to him. Though
he could pass for a decade younger and still moves around the
lab with ease, it’s not lost on him that he’s increasingly at risk
for the very disease he’s spent his life’s work trying to cure.
“There are no guarantees in science or life. But I want to
know we gave it our very best and spared no effort,” he says.
“If I don’t get to sit on a beach for a few more years, it’s
worth it.” ED.