Why AI Isn't Ready to Make Medicines
Why AI Isn't Ready to Make Medicines  
Podcast: TechSurge: Deep Tech Podcast
Published On: Thu Mar 13 2025
Description: Many in venture capital and biopharma are anointing artificial intelligence the savior of drug discovery—but what can AI actually do?In this eye-opening episode, Michael Marks sits down with Mike Nohaile, CEO of Prellis Biologics, to explore the hype versus reality in AI-enabled drug discovery. Mike details why, despite significant breakthroughs like AlphaFold and recent Nobel Prize win for computational protein design, fully AI-generated medicines still present challenges. He also discusses why we urgently need more effective medicines and details Prellis’ unique system which combines laser printed human organoids and an externalized human immune system with AI, enabling the discovery of fully human antibodies. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits.Links:Explore Prellis Biologicshttps://prellisbio.com/Understand AlphaFold, DeepMind’s AI model for predicting protein structureshttps://deepmind.google/alphafoldRead about the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/press-release/  (00:00) - The Reality of AI in Drug Discovery (03:05) - The Need for Better Medicines (06:05) - Evolution of Pharmaceutical Therapies (08:55) - Challenges in Protein Drug Discovery (12:13) - AI's Role in Protein Design (14:46) - Limitations of AI in Drug Development (17:58) - Understanding Protein Structures (20:54) - The Future of AI in Medicine (22:36) - The Challenges of Drug Development (29:44) - Innovations in Antibody Production (35:01) - Advancements in Obesity Treatments (39:54) - The Future of Drug Discovery