INmune Bio Inc. and Quantum Computing Inc. today announced a collaboration to apply quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to identify new potential applications for XPro (XPro1595), INmune Bio's investigational treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other disease conditions.
The collaboration brings together INmune Bio's data from pre-clinical research through four clinical trials and understanding of disease biology with QCi's Dirac-3S quantum optimization machine. Working with clinical and publicly available biomedical datasets, the companies intend to use quantum computing alongside AI and conventional data analytics to uncover relationships that could help find diseases driven by the same biology XPro targets, and to prioritize those with the greatest potential for success.
The Stage 1 engagement represents QCi's first commercial customer in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market. The agreement also provides options for additional work as INmune Bio advances its clinical development programs.
"We've built a large clinical dataset on Alzheimer’s and other diseases, backed by years of work with XPro," said David Moss, Chief Executive Officer of INmune Bio. "This collaboration allows us to examine patient populations and biomarkers most likely to predict responses by analyzing large data sets. We'll look for the diseases with the greatest potential for success, those whose human biology matches what we've already seen XPro do, starting with rare diseases where trials can be smaller, faster and more capital-efficient, and where qualifying pediatric approvals may earn a Priority Review Voucher."
Together, the companies will build on INmune Bio's research into XPro to explore where its approach to targeting inflammation may offer the greatest potential. XPro is designed to selectively inhibit soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a protein involved in inflammation, while preserving other TNF functions important to the immune system. INmune Bio is investigating its potential in neurological and rare diseases where this targeted approach may offer a therapeutic benefit.
Using its Dirac-3S entropy quantum optimization machine alongside AI and conventional analytics, QCi will look for patterns and relationships across these datasets that could help researchers better understand treatment responses, identify promising patient populations and prioritize new indications for further study.
“This is a great example of what practical quantum computing can look like today,” said Yuping Huang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of QCi. “INmune Bio has a complex scientific problem and a substantial body of clinical and biological data. Our job is to bring new computing capabilities to that problem and see what we can learn. The potential to help researchers make better decisions about future treatments is exciting, and it opens an important new market for QCi.”
An important part of the program will be testing where quantum optimization adds value. The companies plan to compare results from QCi's quantum optimization machine with appropriate conventional statistical and machine-learning methods, evaluating which approaches are best suited to different parts of the analysis.
The work is also intended to establish a repeatable discovery process through quantum computing that INmune Bio can use with additional datasets and potential disease indications.
For INmune Bio, the collaboration offers a new way to evaluate the broader potential of XPro and prioritize future development opportunities. For QCi, it represents an opportunity to showcase how its room-temperature, low-power quantum computing technology can be applied to complex, real-world problems in pharmaceutical research.