From Molecule to Mock Human: Why Programmable Virtual Humans Could Rewrite Drug Discovery
The AI hype in pharma has mostly yielded faster failures. Despite generative models for molecules and AlphaFold for protein folding, the fundamental chasm remains: what works in silico or in vitro still too often flops in vivo. A new proposal — Programmable Virtual Humans (PVHs) — may finally aim high enough: modeling the entire cascade of drug action across human biology, not just optimizing isolated steps. 🧬 The Translational Gap Isn’t Just a Data Problem Most AI models in drug discovery focus on digitizing existing methods. Target-based models optimize binding affinity; phenotype-based approaches predict morphology changes in cell lines. But both ignore the reality that molecular behavior in humans is emergent — shaped by multiscale interactions between genes, proteins, tissues, and organs. ...