Isaac Bentwich is a Jack of all trades and master of all. The three bio-artificial intelligence companies he established went on to lead medicine, genomics, agriculture, and conservation.
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He is also a physician, entrepreneur, meditation teacher, and the CEO and founder of Quris Technologies company which uses artificial intelligence for drug development.
Q: Do you see a common thread between the various fields in which you have excelled?
"When I graduated medical school, I was involved with one of the three biotech companies I founded over the years. I didn't want to be pulled into that world, and I said to myself I would dedicate one year to this hobby, and not a day more," Bentwich said.
"In the end, I was involved with the first company for seven years, and entrepreneurship became very close to my heart. Even before that, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue to be a physician or go into computing or ceramics. In the end, I settled on biotech.
"Meditation and Yoga have been a part of my life since a young age. My late mother practiced Yoga long before it became popular, and that is how at the age of 5 I found myself participating in a Yoga extracurricular activity. With time, as a result, I also started meditating.
"All the companies I founded over the years and all my best ideas came about after a silent retreat and meditation. It gives me a perspective, and is impactful when it comes to turning ideas into inventions, into reality."
Q: Would you say you have experienced a kind of enlightenment?
"Every person has creativity that is usually drowned out by everyday thoughts. But when we quiet the noise and disconnect from the frantic race – our creativity and ability to observe the thoughts become clearer. I work a lot of hours a day, sometimes as many as 16, and meditation and Yoga are my lifelines."
Bentwich's company – Quris – tackles one of the most impactful AI challenges of our time by predicting which drug candidates actually work. In 2020, pharmaceutical companies lost over $36 billion on failed clinical trials, an expense that is expected to reach half a trillion dollars within a decade.
Q: How has Quris' technology changed the situation?
"In short, the drug development process worldwide is very inefficient. Companies invest millions of dollars on lab experiments, in vitro, and assuming they are successful, move on to animal experiments, in vivo, mice, for example.
"After investing millions as well as a few good years, 89% of medications that perform well in tests on animals fail in clinical trials, with hundreds of millions more dollars gone. Our advantage is in the possibility to better predict the drug that will work more efficiently in the human body, and in essence, create a simulation of the human body and use it to test the medication.
"Today, drug development takes 12-20 years and costs $2.5 billion. But developing a working drug only takes $200 million. In fact, companies often develop a drug that does not work, and only once in a way that does – which is reflected in the price.
"Imagine a world where real estate is similar to the pharmaceutical world: a contractor comes to the engineer and the architect in order to build a skyscraper, and they say, 'You've come to the right place. We'll create 10 building plans for you. You will build them and we promise nine of them will collapse but have no idea which, so increase the rent in the one remaining building.'
"This is how the pharmaceutical industry works today. Health has become so expensive, in a way that countries and economies cannot afford it, but all this is going to change when drugs are developed with advanced tools and not the kind that were used 100 years ago."
Q: So how does Quris' technology work?
"Our solution is threefold: we take a small plastic chip and inside it grow a tiny human organ – liver, kidney, brain. Our chip has a miniature human brain, not one that has the ability to think or compose symphonies, but one with brain cells, which respond similarly to an actual brain much more than regular tissue, and more than a lab mouse."
Q: How big is it?
"A third of a millimeter, 300 micrometers. It's like the tip of the needle."
Q: It sounds like something out of science-fiction.
"Definitely. Moreover, to that same chip, we connect several other organs, to simulate an entire functioning human body."
Q: Incredible.
"Wait, there's more. Our second component is a genetically different variation of the same chip. Meaning, this chip will resemble several different patients, who are part of a representative sample we selected from the population.
"When we check how effective the medicine is, we can check it for a specific person, and know what will work best for him and if any side effects are to be expected. The third component is, of course, artificial intelligence that identifies the best medicine for a particular patient. The way our system is built, it will be possible to predict this for millions of such trials,'" Bentwich continued.
"All this, by the way, is the result of dedicated teamwork. A group of young and very talented individuals who specialize in different fields – AI, robotics, biology, chemistry – all working together, as well as programmers who could work at any other company, but they work with us, because we tell them, 'Which is better? To work on a product that will make investors millions or work on a fascinating project that will help change the world?'"
Q: And how does Quris stand out among its competitors?
"We are the only ones to offer a solution for clinical forecasting. Every company in this field, after finding the supposedly suitable medicine, needs to return to trials and experimenting on mice, which fail 90% of the time.
"We know how to perform the tests with 'chip patients' and to expedite the process. Just recently, we signed an agreement with the New York Stem Cell Foundation, a world leader in this field, that will allow us to conduct drug trials on thousands of different chip patients before they are tested on human beings."
Q: I assume that means this will lead to a significant decrease in medicine prices.
"Correct."
Q: And meanwhile, drug costs are a result of bureaucracy in the pharmaceutical industry, and most recently, perhaps, by the coronavirus pandemic.
"The fear of vaccines may have faded if the inoculation process was conducted traditionally. But we live in wonderful times – and we can learn from the coronavirus and from the digital biology that came along with it, new techniques that are not based on trial and error, and will likely become more dominant.
"Moreover, had our technology been fully applicable today, we would see coronavirus vaccines created within two months. That is how dramatic this is.
"Also, three months ago the European Parliament banned experimenting on animals and mandated EU companies to cease such experiments by a certain date, with the main alternatives for these experiments being stem cell, chip organs, and artificial intelligence – the three pillars of Quris. Similar legislation is being considered by the Senate. And if we think a decade ahead, it will ultimately reduce experiments on humans as well, and make them safer."
Q: You mentioned that your chips have human brains inside them. Does that mean that your technology will help treat brain disorders as well?
"Yes, our tools will significantly accelerate the drug development for all brain disorders – schizophrenia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and more. The first drug, which we are developing already, is for treating Fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes a range of developmental problems, such as autism and cognitive impairments. "
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"We specifically chose this disease because it cannot be tested on mice, and we use tiny brains to study the illness. The drug development is based on the research of Hebrew University's Nissim Benvenisty, with whom we work together. It is an exciting Israeli development that is taking place right here, in Israel."
Q: What about other diseases, such as cancer?
"In a few years, our technology will be able to impact this field as well. Although chemotherapy destroys the disease, many times it also hurts the body. There are relatively primitive approaches today that suggest taking a part of the tumor during operation and coating it in the drug in order to understand its efficacy.
"However, we will be able to test the treatment not only on the tumor itself but the patient's entire replication. Meaning, how the drug will be broken down by the kidney, excreted by the liver, and so on. This makes the treatment much more effective, with fewer side effects."
Q: Will you also be able to heal damaged organs?
"Wonderful question. Because we can create tiny livers, the hope is that using stem cells, eventually we will be able to create entire liver that could be transplanted. This is already happening today, with Beyond Meat that creates the muscle of a cow to be eaten as a steak."
Q: When will your technology hit the pharmaceutical market?
"It's already in the process. We hope that the Fragile X syndrome drug will enter clinical trials next year, and, hopefully, hit the market within 3-4 months. It's incredible, usually, this process takes several years."
Q: Your company reported $19 million this month in seed funding, together with the $9 million that you announced in 2021. This is considered the largest seed funding ever in Israel.
"Our company is supported by people who lead us scientifically – Professor Aaron Ciechanover, a Nobel prize winner [in chemistry], Professor Robert Langer, co-founder of Moderna, as well as leading investors – Leon Recanati, Welltech Ventures, iAngels, Kobi Richter, Moshe Yanai, of the forefathers of Israeli medtech. We believe that this platform will be worth billions of dollars within a few years."
Q: So the aspiration is for Quris to become a decacorn, a company worth over 10 billion dollars?
"Absolutely. Just look at what Zoom has done to the airline world. Today, Zoom is worth more than the world's largest airlines, because it allows one to perform an action that would otherwise involve heavy expenditure. Our technology has the potential to transport the pharmaceutical world as Zoom has transformed the airline world. We are completely changing the rules of the game."
Q: Some scientists and philosophers worry about the impact of artificial intelligence.
"The development of this technology does not worry me. On the contrary, I am glad, because it helps bring about progress and health. By the way, we would not be able to stop this process even if we wanted to, because it makes the roads safer, the diseases less dangerous, and so on and so on," Bentwich said.
"I would like to approach what you said from a different perspective: as technology develops, we do not see morality follow suit. Technology strengthens as does materialism, so it is important to develop our inner world as well.
"The pace of technological development in recent years was disproportionate to the pace of moral development, kindness, happiness, and control of our mind."
Q: Technology and artificial intelligence do not make us happier human beings.
"There are mindfulness and meditation tools that can make us happier, but what is important to remember is that outside matters are solved on the outside, and inside matters on the inside. A teacher I admire once said, if your cat is lost, do not just sit around and meditate, because the cat is not inside. But if you're looking to be happier and calmer, it is something a bigger car or a better-paying job will not solve."
