Using AI to crack undruggable drug targets

As we mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we welcome Avital Sharir-Ivry, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of ProPhet, an innovative Israeli startup launched in late 2024 from the AION Labs venture studio.With a PhD in computational biology and drug research, Avital brings deep expertise in structural biology, enzyme design, and evolutionary bioinformatics to her role leading ProPhet's scientific efforts.ProPhet itself is changing small molecule drug discovery by using advanced AI and machine learning to map proteins and compounds into a shared interaction space. This enables rapid, scalable screening of billions of molecules—even for so-called "undruggable" targets—without relying on solved structures or massive datasets, speeding up hit-finding and expanding the reachable therapeutic landscape.01:36 Meet Avital Sharir-Ivry08:55 How ProPhet emerged from AION Labs challenge12:12 Core AI technology for hit-finding at scale15:00 Benchmarks and collaborations17:54 ProPhet’s differentiation from traditional drug discovery19:45 Importance of scaling small molecule exploration24:19 Pharma AI investments and emerging trends26:11 Future AI breakthroughs in drug discovery27:04 Challenges and progress for women in science31:15 Keep up with ProPhetInterested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletterTo dive deeper into the topic: Seven influential women in biotech in 2026 Report: Adopting AI in biologics discoveryWebinar: How AI and LLMs are helping chemists design drugs faster and smarter