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AI platform co-founded by St John’s scientist named a TIME best invention

A former St John’s scientist’s platform offering researchers free access to advanced AI drug discovery tools has just been named one of TIME Magazine’s inventions of the year.

Andrea Dimitracopoulos (2017) is an entrepreneur working in life sciences and artificial intelligence, with a focus on AI for drug discovery. While a College Research Associate at St John’s, he co-founded deepmirror in 2019 to bridge the gap between advanced AI and its practical use in scientific research.

Now deepmirror, in partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), has launched Drug Design for Global Health (dd4gh). It has been named in TIME’s 2026 Best Inventions in the Social Impact category.

Drug Design for Global Health is an open-access AI platform designed to accelerate research into malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases.

Andrea said: “I am incredibly proud that Drug Design for Global Health has been selected as one of TIME’s 2026 Best Inventions.

“This collaborative platform is powered by deepmirror’s foundation model for drug design, and enables scientists working on global health projects to design and evaluate new molecules to fight deadly diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases. dd4gh is the result of a multi-year partnership between deepmirror, the AI startup I co-founded during my time at St John’s College, and Medicines for Malaria Ventures, a Geneva-based nonprofit.

“Building this platform with a wonderful community of global health scientists is very motivating, and the best is yet to come.”

Selected by TIME editors and correspondents worldwide, the annual list spotlights 300 groundbreaking inventions evaluated for originality, efficacy, ambition and impact. Free to eligible global health researchers, the AI platform uses extensive molecular data sets, helping scientists design and prioritise novel molecules, and focus limited time and funding on the most promising options. The platform was co-created with more than 50 global health researchers, many from disease-endemic countries.

Launched in March 2026, dd4gh had 400 registered users as of October, 60 per cent of whom are from low- and middle-income countries. Its next phase will add advanced drug design capabilities to help scientists identify promising compounds earlier, incorporate capabilities to design long-acting injectable medicines and predict the dose required to meet ideal product profiles.

MMV is a not-for-profit product development partnership working to discover, develop and deliver medicines to treat, prevent and eliminate malaria, a disease that causes more than 600,000 deaths every year.