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Menten AI has an impressive founding team and a pitch that combines some of the hottest trends in tech to pursue one of the biggest problems in healthcare new drug discovery. The company is also $4 million richer with a seed investment from firms including Uncork Capital and Khosla Ventures to build out its business.

Menten AIs pitch to investors was the combination of quantum computing and machine learning to discover new drugs that sit between small molecules and large biologics, according to the companys co-founder Hans Melo.

A graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator, which also participated in the round, Menten AI looks to design proteins from scratch. Its a heavier lift than some might expect, because, as Melo said in an interview, it takes a lot of work to make an actual drug.

Menten AI is working with peptides, which are strings of amino acid chains similar to proteins that have the potential to slow aging, reduce inflammation and get rid of pathogens in the body.

As a drug modality [peptides] are quite new, says Melo. Until recently it was really hard to design them computationally and people tried to focus on genetically modifying them.

Peptides have the benefit of getting through membranes and into cells where they can combine with targets that are too large for small molecules, according to Melo.

Most drug targets are not addressable with either small molecules or biologics, according to Melo, which means theres a huge untapped potential market for peptide therapies.

Menten AI is already working on a COVID-19 therapeutic, although the companys young chief executive declined to disclose too many details about it. Another area of interest is in neurological disorders, where the founding team members have some expertise.

Image of peptide molecules. Image Courtesy: D-Wave

While Menten AIs targets are interesting, the approach that the company is taking, using quantum computing to potentially drive down the cost and accelerate the time to market, is equally compelling for investors.

Its also unproven. Right now, there isnt a quantum advantage to using the novel computing technology versus traditional computing. Something that Melo freely admits.

Were not claiming a quantum advantage, but were not claiming a quantum disadvantage, is the way the young entrepreneur puts it. We have come up with a different way of solving the problem that may scale better. We havent proven an advantage.

Still, the company is an early indicator of the kinds of services quantum computing could offer, and its with that in mind that Menten AI partnered with some of the leading independent quantum computing companies, D-Wave and Rigetti Computing, to work on applications of their technology.

The emphasis on quantum computing also differentiates it from larger publicly traded competitors like Schrdinger and Codexis.

So does the pedigree of its founding team, according to Uncork Capital investor, Jeff Clavier. Its really the unique team that they formed, Clavier said of his decision to invest in the early-stage company. Theres Hans the CEO who is more on the quantum side; theres Tamas [Gorbe] on the bio side and theres Vikram [Mulligan] who developed the research. Its kind of a unique fantastic team that came together to work on the opportunity.

Clavier has also acknowledged the possibility that it might not work.

Can they really produce anything interesting at the end? he asked. Its still an early-stage company and we may fall flat on our face or they may come up with really new ways to make new peptides.

Its probably not a bad idea to take a bet on Melo, who worked with Mulligan, a researcher from the Flatiron Institute focused on computational biology, to produce some of the early research into the creation of new peptides using D-Waves quantum computing.

Novel peptide structures created using D-Waves quantum computers. Image Courtesy: D-Wave

While Melo and Mulligan were the initial researchers working on the technology that would become Menten AI, Gorbe was added to the founding team to get the company some exposure into the world of chemistry and enzymatic applications for its new virtual protein manufacturing technology.

The gamble paid off in the form of pilot projects (also undisclosed) that focus on the development of enzymes for agricultural applications and pharmaceuticals.

At the end of the day what theyre doing is theyre using advanced computing to figure out what is the optimal placement of those clinical compounds in a way that is less based on those sensitive tests and more bound on those theories, said Clavier.

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Menten AIs combination of buzzword bingo brings AI and quantum computing to drug discovery - TechCrunch

SANTA FE, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Shared Assessments Program today released a new briefing paper, The Role of ERM in Managing Risks Related to New Technologies. This collaborative, member-driven effort examines the challenges that come with significant technology shifts, such as IoT, AI, 5G and the encryption issues related to quantum computing.

Technology advances can fuel heightened productivity, important product development and enhance the ability to meet business objectives. Yet, along with these benefits, technology often introduces new risks. An incomplete understanding of those risks can lead to material consequences. The paper highlights the key role the board and C-suite should play in helping to recognize and respond to the risks that emerging technology presents.

Its important for Boards to ensure that a systemic process exists for recognizing and maximizing outcomes from new technologies. Executive management should evaluate whether appropriate structures and resources are in place to understand both opportunities and significant risks associated with emerging technologies, and where gaps exist, close them, notes Gary Roboff, Senior Advisor at the Shared Assessments Program.

Key practices that should be implemented when planning and adopting new technologies include:

Both internally and with third parties, the paper delves into challenges and opportunities of each of the four most significant emerging technologies. Appropriate actions include:

While specific emerging technologies each represent some level of risk, the interdependencies and cumulative effect of these technologies when integrated can present a significant increase in risk to an enterprise. A clear example is the current IoT environment, which will become a more powerful and capable technology once leveraging 5G and, in the process, yield a more formidable risk challenge for all organizations, said Shawn Malone, Founder & CEO, Security Diligence, LLC.

The briefing paper and companion executive summary can be downloaded at: https://sharedassessments.org/blog/the-role-of-erm/.

About the Shared Assessments Program

As the only organization that has uniquely positioned and developed standardized resources to bring efficiencies to the market for more than a decade, the Shared Assessments Program has become the trusted source in third party risk assurance. Shared Assessments offers opportunities for members to address global risk management challenges through committees, awareness groups, interest groups and special projects.

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Paper Outlines the Role of ERM in Managing Risks Related to New Technologies - Business Wire

This article originally appeared in May's edition of IT Pro 20/20,available here. To sign up to receive each new issue in your inbox, click here.

While the world grapples with the fallout of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the shift to mass remote working also dubbed the distributed workplace other trends are bubbling under the surface. The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in businesses of all stripes is no secret, but there are another three technologies distributed ledger, extended reality, and quantum computing that are becoming increasingly influential as well.

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While SMAC Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud has already changed the relationships service providers have with their customers over the course of recent years, DARQ, as these newer technologies are collectively known, looks set to become even more transformative.

With all these technologies, and AI in particular, becoming mainstream, do we need a new form of regulation to ensure DARQ technologies are used legally, fairly and ethically?

The digital change is not wafting like a gentle summer breeze over the beaches of Malta, says Felix Hufeld, president of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. Its sweeping over the industry like a storm and is shaking up business models, companies and even entire markets.

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Regulators have already seen the rapid growth of FinTech, with new companies innovating outside of traditional banking and financial services. This has raised concerns that their regulatory regimes wont be able to keep up with the pace of development.

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Here, some form of automation could deliver a regulatory environment fit for a world dominated by DARQ technologies. A late-2019 survey carried out by the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority found 57% of regulated services use AI for risk management and compliance.

Susannah Hammond, senior regulatory intelligence expert at Thomson Reuters, tells IT Pro: Traditionally, regulators [of financial services and data protection technologies] have sought to be technology-neutral when it comes to their rules and requirements, and have focused on the outcomes of the use of any technologies.

The emphasis is on senior managers understanding the new technologies, their limitations, any new risks which may arise (e.g. bias in machine learning, etc.) and the checks and balances to ensure that the technology is, in practice, working as intended. Equally, there is a focus on the resilience of IT infrastructures both in terms of ensuring good customer outcomes and cyber hygiene.

Go digital to meet todays critical compliance and security requirements

Digital transformation helps companies meet critical compliance and security requirements

DARQ offers businesses the tools they need to develop new personalised experiences for their customers. Each element of DARQ will independently usher in new opportunities and ways of working, but it's the convergence of these technologies that really drives innovation what Accenture called the reimagining of entire industries. Indeed, according to Accenture 89% of businesses are already experimenting with one or more DARQ technologies. For example, Volkswagen is using quantum computers to develop intelligent traffic guidance systems.

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Using AI as a component of service automation for instance, opens up questions of accuracy and accountability. At the moment, the focus is on financial services as they expand and accelerate their use of technologies such as machine learning and biometric identification to combat fraud. When other DARQ technologies are added to the mix, this heady cocktail of data becomes difficult to police. Here, RegTech (Regulation Technology) could offer a solution.

The RegTech industry is expanding. According to KPMG, RegTechs predicted share of all regulatory spending by 2022 will reach 34%, with the management consultancy defining RegTech 3.0 as a move from know your customer to know your data. This shift is critical to understand as all of the DARQ technologies are developing to create highly personalised services all of which will need a degree of regulation.

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The initial focus has been on how technologies such as AI are being applied to financial services and the businesses that supply them. RegTech, though, is expected to increase in importance as regulators realise they need new platforms to ensure DARQ technologies remain compliant.

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With regards to AI or quantum, regulations will be crucial for the wider adoption of these technologies as they will provide protection to consumers. This will allow the public to trust that they can safely rely upon these services, explains Benot Sauvage, director of regulatory strategy at Deloitte.

The main issue is that regulations do not yet fully comprehend these technologies. For instance, for AI, it is expected that regulations demand to explain the algorithms and show how results can be overridden or stopped. For quantum there might be a need to adapt cybersecurity rules and data protection rules, he adds.

Businesses and regulators alike are considering how automated systems could help them keep pace with the technological change that will only accelerate when DARQ is considered.

Removing human compliance officers from the decision-making processes is risky, as many of the DARQ technologies are often a black box. RegTech will evolve and become an essential tool. Compliance officers will have little choice than to use these systems if they are to understand the avalanche of regulation that DARQ will attract and how these regulations impact their businesses.

Businesses are striving to implement more automation and DARQ will help them achieve those goals. However, these technologies can seem opaque to the uninitiated and how machine language systems arrive at a conclusion must be explainable. Here, ensuring bias isnt present in the system is vital and must contain some form of oversight.

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However, as Franois-Kim Hug, a partner at Deloitte tells IT Pro, its important not to forget the importance of human input.

The advent of RegTech does not mean the end of the compliance officer, Hug explains. We are still far from a global compliance solution that can anticipate, understand, interpret and implement the ongoing avalanche of regulations impacting all businesses. This means the profile of compliance officers will need to adjust to this new digital reality where new solutions and new ways of working are created daily.

All of the DARQ technologies are on an accelerating upward trajectory, although not all of them will develop at the same pace. Already we see the first widespread applications of AI particularly machine learning whereas other components of the DARQ collective, such as quantum computing, are still in their infancy.

As such, regulators will move forward with defining the compliance regime DARQ must be used within as each component becomes more mainstream and begins to impact consumers.

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For businesses, while most recognise the massive impact SMAC has had, they may not be aware of DARQ or know that its impact could be even more disruptive. Once they wake up to this reality, their development roadmap should come into focus as soon as possible and they can start taking their first steps in using these technologies.

Regulators will, as always, be watching and RegTech could deliver a helpful dose of automated compliance. But that doesnt mean its time to say goodbye to your human compliance officers they will have a vital role to play as we start to more confidently explore the DARQ.

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Is IT regulation in the DARQ? - IT PRO