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Harvard Released A New AI Tool To Speed Up Cancer Cure Research
And it's already being used by medical researchers
Brian Hanson
September 12, 2025
Good morning,
Harvard Medical School just dropped an AI Tool that could change everything we know about finding cures for cancer and other tough diseases.
This isn't just another research tool sitting in a lab. Any doctor, researcher, or medical company can download it today and start using it to find better treatments.
Harvard basically just gave the entire world a shortcut to discovering cures faster.
Most Drug Research Tests One Thing At A Time—PDGrapher Changes That
One drug, one protein, one gene. That's slow and often doesn't work for complex diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's.
These diseases involve many parts of a cell working together in the wrong way.
PDGrapher is different. It looks at how all the genes, proteins, and pathways in a cell connect to each other.
The AI then figures out which parts are the real "drivers" of the disease, which are the key problems that keep cells sick.
Once it finds those drivers, PDGrapher predicts which genes or combinations of drugs could target them to push the cell back to being healthy.
In tests, PDGrapher looked at 19 different cancer datasets and accurately predicted both known good treatments and brand new ones that scientists hadn't thought of yet.
It did this 35% better than other AI tools and worked 25 times faster.
From The Harvard Gazzette
Harvard Hopes This AI Tool Will Help Researchers Find Cures Faster
Harvard’s team, led by Dr. Marinka Zitnik, hopes PDGrapher will help researchers find cures faster and more efficiently.
“Traditional drug discovery resembles tasting hundreds of prepared dishes to find one that happens to taste perfect,” said study senior author Marinka Zitnik, associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. “PDGrapher works like a master chef who understands what they want the dish to be and exactly how to combine ingredients to achieve the desired flavor.” - From Harvard’s News Website
The Harvard Gazette and Inside Precision Medicine both report that the tool is already being used to study not just cancer, but also rare diseases and brain disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
If You’re In The Medical Space, Here’s How To Get PDGrapher
Go to GitHub.com and search for “PDGrapher” or visit the Harvard Medical School Zitnik Lab website.
Download the PDGrapher code (it’s open-source and free).
Follow the setup instructions to install the required software (Python and standard data science tools).
Upload your cell or gene expression data in the format PDGrapher expects.
Run the analysis and review the results. PDGrapher will show you which genes or drug combos are most likely to reverse the disease.
Harvard’s team has included step-by-step guides and example datasets to help you get started.
Talk soon,
Brian
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