Acceleration Consortium

U of T-anchored hospital network among leading life sciences research hubs, report finds

The University of Toronto and its partner hospitals are propelling the Toronto region as a leading global hub for life sciences research – but its success is at risk from underinvestment. That’s among the findings of a new report that examines the strengths and challenges within the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) – which comprises U of T […]
A rendering of the Lash Miller building expansion (image courtesy of Mikkelsen Arkitekter AS / Cumulus Architects)

U of T breaks ground on a new home for the Acceleration Consortium

The university recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the expansion of the Lash Miller building on the St. George campus – a place that will serve as the new home of the Acceleration Consortium while providing improved facilities for the department of chemistry.
The Self-Driving Lab for Human Organ Mimicry will use organoids and organs-on-chips – a well plate is pictured here – to allow researchers to move potential therapeutics to human clinical trials more rapidly (photo by Rick Lu)

U of T 'self-driving lab' to focus on next-gen human tissue models

The Self-Driving Laboratory for Human Organ Mimicry is the latest self-driving lab to spring from a historic $200-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund to the Acceleration Consortium
Alán Aspuru-Guzik. Photo by Polina Teif

The Lab That (Almost) Runs Itself

Robots and AI are changing how we do science, making it faster, cheaper and more productive. By Scott Anderson for U of T Magazine
Elevated view of an auditorium full of conference attendees listening to Leah Cowen speak.

2023 Accelerate Conference

Accelerate is an interdisciplinary event that brings together changemakers in academia, industry and government who are shaping the emerging field of AI for science. Conference talks, workshops and networking opportunities will allow attendees to connect with a global community working to realize a healthy, sustainable, materially different future. The 2023 conference takes place August 22-25 […]

New autonomous lab at University of Toronto to improve drug formulation

A new autonomous lab being built in the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy will help to design and optimize formulations that will improve bioavailability, stability and efficacy of a variety of drugs. Christine Allen, a professor in the faculty whose research focuses on drug development and disease diagnostics, is co-leading the lab with Frank Gu,  a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

U of T receives $200-million grant to support Acceleration Consortium's ‘self-driving labs’ research

The University of Toronto has been awarded a $200-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) to revolutionize the speed and impact of scientific discovery through its Acceleration Consortium. The funding – the largest federal research grant ever awarded to a Canadian university – will support the consortium’s work on “self-driving labs” that combine artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials and molecules in a fraction of the usual time and cost.

Experts say $200-million grant awarded to U of T will drive ‘big science’ via the Acceleration Consortium

The Acceleration Consortium will use the funding to commercialize ethically designed technologies and materials to benefit society and train today’s scientists with the skills they need to advance the emerging field of accelerated materials discovery. It will also examine critical issues regarding the application of the technology, including from environmental and Indigenous perspectives. 

AI could develop cancer treatments in less than a month

In less than a month, researchers from University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium, in partnership with Insilico Medicine, have designed a potential treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), an aggressive and common form of liver cancer that claims approximately 700,000 lives each year. The study is the first to use AlphaFold — an AI-powered protein structure database — in an end-to-end AI drug discovery platform called Pharma.AI. 
Researchers Christine Allen and Alán Aspuru-Guzik used machine learning to predict experimental drug release from long-acting injectables (photo by Steve Southon)

U of T scientists use AI to fast-track drug formulation development

In a bid to reduce the time and cost associated with developing promising new medicines, U of T scientists have successfully tested the use of artificial intelligence to guide the design of long-acting injectable drug formulations. The study was led by Profs. Christine Allen and Alán Aspuru-Guzik.
Anatole von Lilienfeld is one of the world's brightest visionaries on the use of computers to understand the vastness of chemical space. (photo by Diana Tyszko)

'No small feat': U of T's Anatole von Lilienfeld is using AI to explore the vastness of 'chemical space'

Anatole von Lilienfeld navigates space – but rather than exploring the depths of the universe, his artificial intelligence-powered work focuses on “chemical space” and the untapped potential of undiscovered chemical combinations. U of T news recently spoke with von Lilienfeld about the digitization of chemistry and what the future holds.
Portrait diptych with Gillian Hadfield (left ) in a cream blazer and black turtleneck; Anatole von Lilienfeld (right) in a tan blazer, charcoal vest holding a circuit board in each hand.

Two U of T professors named Canada CIFAR AI Chairs

University of Toronto professors Gillian Hadfield, director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society, and Anatole von Lilienfeld, of the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science, have been named Canada CIFAR AI Chairs in recognition of their global leadership in artificial intelligence research.

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