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-Ivry

08:55 How ProPhet emerged from AION Labs challenge

12:12 Core AI technology for hit-finding at scale

15:00 Benchmarks and collaborations

17:54 ProPhet’s differentiation from traditional drug discovery

19:45 Importance of scaling small molecule exploration

24:19 Pharma AI investments and emerging trends

26:11 Future AI breakthroughs in drug discovery

27:04 Challenges and progress for women in science

31:15 Keep up with ProPhet

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Seven influential women in biotech in 2026 
• Report: Adopting AI in biologics discovery
• Webinar: How AI and LLMs are helping chemists design drugs faster and smarter