～Partnership to establish AI-based technology in drug discovery research for infectious diseases～

Tokyo, Japan ― April 14 , 2022 － LPIXEL Inc., a leader in image analysis and processing in life science and medical research, announced the commencement of joint research into drug discovery technologies for infectious diseases using AI with Shionogi TechnoAdvance Research & Co., Ltd.; hereafter “STAR.”

Measurement of viral titer is important in drug discovery research for the treatment of various viral infections, including novel coronavirus infection. This joint research will focus on cellular damage (morphological changes) induced by viral infection and will utilize LPIXEL’s image analysis AI “IMACEL” to accelerate and automatically calculate viral titer measurement.

In the past, viral titer was calculated by a skilled researcher visually determining the presence or absence of cellular damage (morphological change) caused by viral infection, resulting in a workload for the researcher and low throughput. This joint research aims to construct an AI that recognizes minute differences between images of uninfected and infected cells and automatically classifies them, thereby accelerating and saving labor from the conventional virus titer measurement method and automatically calculating virus titer based on the results of automatic identification of infected and uninfected cells by AI.

Through this joint research, STAR and LPIXEL will further accelerate DX (Digital Transformation) to solve issues in imaging used in various drug discovery research, including the therapeutic area, where the Shionogi Group has strengths in, and will work on technological innovation to contribute to the efficiency of drug discovery research and the early discovery of new chemical entity.

About Shionogi TechnoAdvance Research & Co., Ltd.
Shionogi TechnoAdvance Research Co., Ltd. is aware of the changes in modality and transformation of drug discovery process intended by Shionogi Group, provides drug discovery tools / materials / data that cannot be obtained from others. By proposing and implementing the best solutions toward the issues on drug discovery, we strive constantly to create “the best possible medicines to protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve”. We will continuously refine the research technology that we have developed so far, and we will further establish and promote the practical application of innovative new technologies by co-creating with external partners, and then we will work to solve the issues on drug discovery research.

About LPIXEL
LPIXEL is a leader in advanced image analysis and processing technology encompassing the life science field. Founded in March 2014, LPIXEL is dedicated to offering research facilities, top-tier image analysis technologies and medical diagnosis technologies, both of which adopt advanced AI technology. LPIXEL revolves around business such as its medical image analysis software, “EIRL,” and its AI-based image analysis service, “IMACEL.”
For more information, please visit https://lpixel.net/en/

About IMACEL
AI for Accelerating Pharma R&D
The utilization of AI is becoming increasingly common in the development of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The application of AI to the drug discovery process makes possible not only a quantitative evaluation ability and performance equivalent to human perception, but also an enhancement of the effectiveness of the measurements made that is brought about by being able to execute tasks on a scale that is beyond human capacity. LPIXEL has built up research achievements working together with Astellas Pharma, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and other leading pharmaceutical companies.
LPIXEL’s professional team offers one-stop support for your needs in all stages of the drug discovery process with proposals covering everything from experimental designs to optimal data acquisition and collection methods for AI learning.
For more information, please visit https://imacel.net/en/

Contact Information
SHIONOGI & Co., Ltd. inquiry form：
https://www.shionogi.com/global/en/contact.html

LPIXEL Inc.
TEL：03-6259-1713　Email：pr@lpixel.net