AI & drug discovery: presentation at Laminopathy Conference
Laminopathies represent a challenging reality for many patients. These rare genetic disorders arise from mutations in the LMNA gene, which encodes the nuclear lamins A and C—proteins essential for maintaining the structural integrity of the cell nucleus. When these lamins are defective, symptoms can range from muscle weakness and cardiac complications to premature aging syndromes, profoundly affecting quality of life.
The 5th International Laminopathy Congress was held on May 21-23, 2025 at the Sorbonne University (Paris). During the Congress, Nicolas Maignan, COO of Kantify, was invited to present the collaborative work of Kantify and iStem. Nicolas Maignan detailed our advances in disease modeling and therapeutic screening, illustrating how AI and induced plutipotent stem cells (iPSCs) can drive the development of novel treatment strategies.
In particular, Nicolas showcased the common work of i-Stem and Kantify on Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophies (LGMD), and how it led to the DREAMS project. The DREAMS project (Drug Repurposing and Artificial intelligence for Muscular disorders) is a five-year Horizon Europe initiative (Grant 101080229-2) that unites academic, clinical and industry partners, co-led by i-Stem and Kantify. DREAMS aims to develop the first AI- and iPSC-based drug discovery platform to find treatments for five rare neuromuscular disorders, computationally design drugs engineered to target multiple diseases from the outset, and address the full spectrum of drug discovery challenges—including target discovery, drug design and indication discovery.
Nicolas Maignan declared:
By combining world-class expertise in induced pluripotent stem-cells and Sapian, which is a next generation AI technology, we are building a new paradigm in rare disease drug discovery. Early evidence suggests we are at the dawn of a long-awaited breakthrough in accelerating rare disease drug discovery.
DREAMS aims to accelerate therapy development for conditions such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, Pompe disease, centronuclear myopathy and Danon disease.
