BenchSci, a leader in AI-powered software for biopharmaceutical research and development, has announced a multi-year partnership with Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, one of the world’s foremost AI research centers, to advance artificial intelligence for biological inference and accelerate drug discovery. The collaboration will focus on developing cutting-edge AI models capable of automating the generation of scientific hypotheses and predicting experimental outcomes—key steps toward achieving autonomous drug discovery. By combining BenchSci’s extensive expertise in biological data and its Biological Evidence Knowledge Graph (BEKG), the world’s most comprehensive map of disease biology, with Mila’s world-class AI research, the teams aim to build systems that can reason across complex biological datasets to uncover insights beyond human capability. Stéphane Létourneau, Executive Vice President at Mila, emphasized the significance of the partnership, stating it aligns with Mila’s mission to push the boundaries of AI for scientific advancement. He highlighted that applying advanced AI to the challenges of understanding biology represents one of the most impactful applications of artificial intelligence today. Liran Belenzon, CEO and Co-Founder of BenchSci, described the collaboration as a pivotal milestone in realizing autonomous drug discovery. He explained that by integrating frontier AI research with deep biological understanding, BenchSci is building AI systems capable of biological inference—reasoning across vast datasets to guide research decisions at scale. This approach aims to reduce the primary cause of drug discovery failure: incorrect biological assumptions. As part of the partnership, BenchSci will gain access to Mila’s network of leading AI researchers who will work closely with BenchSci’s machine learning scientists. Their joint efforts will directly enhance the ASCEND platform, BenchSci’s AI-driven solution for preclinical research. The collaboration will accelerate the integration of next-generation inference models into ASCEND, enabling researchers to make faster, more accurate decisions throughout the drug discovery pipeline. The partnership underscores a growing trend of merging academic AI excellence with industry-driven innovation to tackle complex scientific challenges. BenchSci’s platform is already used by 16 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and over 4,500 research institutions worldwide. Backed by prominent investors including Generation Investment Management, iNovia Capital, TCV, F-Prime, Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), and Golden Ventures, BenchSci has raised over $200 million to date. Mila, founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio at the University of Montreal, is the largest academic AI research center in the world, with over 1,500 researchers specializing in deep learning. Supported by the Government of Canada through the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Mila is a global leader in advancing AI for language modeling, automatic translation, object recognition, and generative models. For more information about BenchSci, visit www.benchsci.com. For details about Mila, visit mila.quebec. Media inquiries: BenchSci – Diane Hepps, [email protected], 415-407-1493 Mila – [email protected]