Google DeepMind researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) prediction model, AlphaMissense, to study if mutations in human genes are harmful. Meanwhile, UK-based robotic surgery company, CMR Surgical, has raised $165 million from its existing investors, including SoftBank and Tencent. Is the AI healthcare sector now poised for rapid growth?
The use of AI in the medical and healthcare sectors can help diagnose rare diseases and reduce the pain caused by surgeries. AI is expected to impact the future of healthcare globally, and hence, some investors are placing huge bets.
DeepMind AI Tool Aims to Accelerate Complex Protein Studies
According to the Financial Times, DeepMind has developed the AlphaMissense tool to study “missense mutations.” The National Human Genome Research Institute explains:
“A missense mutation is a DNA change that results in different amino acids being encoded at a particular position in the resulting protein. Some missense mutations alter the function of the resulting protein.”
Žiga Avsec, a DeepMind researcher, claims that human experiments to study missense mutations are expensive and time-consuming. He elaborates:
“Every protein is unique and each experiment has to be designed separately which can take months. By using AI predictions, researchers can get a preview of results for thousands of proteins at a time, which can help to prioritize resources and accelerate more complex studies.”
Another researcher, Jun Cheng, emphasized that while the predictions are not intended only to be used for clinical diagnosis, they can increase the diagnosis rate of rare diseases.
The tech giant Google acquired DeepMind in 2014. While DeepMind is working on AlphaMissense, another tech giant, Meta, is also focused on using AI to study living cells. The interest of Google and Meta in AI healthcare is yet another indicator that the technology holds the potential to revolutionize the sector.
CMR Surgical Raises $165 Million
According to the Financial Times, the robotic surgery giant CMR Surgical has raised $165 million from its existing investors, including SoftBank, Ally Bridge Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Tencent. The company achieved a valuation of $3 billion in 2021 after a $600 million investment round.
The Japanese investment firm SoftBank has been investing in the AI sector in the second half this year. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is impressed with the generative AI growth and claims to be a heavy ChatGPT user.
On Tuesday, BeInCrypto reported that the company is leading a $280 million investment round for a US-based location mapping firm Mapbox. In July, SoftBank also invested $100 million to establish a joint venture with the robotic warehouse company Symbotic.
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How Will CMR Surgical Use Funding?
The company wants to use the fresh funds for product improvements and to increase market penetration.
Its Versius system conducts robotic surgery for over 130 procedures. Moreover, it collects surgery data to aid CMR Surgical with additional information and enhance the design.
Supratim Bose, the CEO of CMR Surgical, claims that robotic surgery reduces patients’ pain and recovery time.
Growth Potential of AI in Healthcare Sector
CMR Surgical mentions that the robotic surgery market is growing by over 15% annually. This is because the patients demand less invasive procedures.
However, robotic surgery makes up only 3-4% of the overall operations. Hence, Bose believes that the sector offers great opportunities.
According to Statista, the market size of AI in healthcare is nearly $20.65 billion in 2023. However, Statista forecasts that the market will grow over nine times to $187.95 billion by 2030.
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