| Established | 2018 |
|---|---|
Field of research | Artificial intelligence and health |
| Directors | Regina Barzilay James J. Collins Dimitris Bertsimas |
Chairs | Dan Huttenlocher Phil Sharp |
| Campus | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Affiliations | MIT Schwarzman College of Computing |
| Phil Sharp | |
| Website | jclinic |
TheMIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (commonly,MIT Jameel Clinic; previously, J-Clinic) is aresearch center at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field ofartificial intelligence (AI) and health sciences, including disease detection,drug discovery, and the development ofmedical devices. The MIT Jameel Clinic also supports the commercialization of solutions through grant funding, and has partnered with pharmaceutical companies, likeTakeda andSanofi, and philanthropies, likeCommunity Jameel andWellcome Trust, to forge collaborations between research and development functions and MIT researchers.[1][2]
Co-founded in 2018 by MIT and Community Jameel,[3] the MIT Jameel Clinic is housed in theMIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The mission of the Jameel Clinic is to "revolutionize the prevention, detection, and treatment of disease", and it describes itself as "the epicenter of AI and healthcare at MIT".[4]
The MIT Jameel Clinic is known for using AI for the discovery of the antibioticshalicin andabaucin, and the development of early cancer detection platforms Mirai forbreast cancer, and Sybil forlung cancer.
On September 17, 2018, the MIT Jameel Clinic was co-founded by MIT and Community Jameel, an organisation of the Jameel family, owners of theAbdul Latif Jameel business.[5] The launch took place at a signing ceremony at MIT with MIT PresidentL. Rafael Reif, and Fady Jameel andHassan Jameel, then-presidents of Community Jameel.[3][6] The MIT Jameel Clinic is the fourth major collaboration between MIT and Community Jameel, after theAbdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab, and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab.[3]
On January 6, 2020, theMIT School of Engineering andTakeda, the pharmaceutical company, announced a new funding program to support research and education in AI and health. The MIT-Takeda Program is housed in the MIT Jameel Clinic. The steering committee for the program is led by ProfessorAnantha P. Chandrakasan, Dean of the School of Engineering, and Anne Heatherington, senior vice president and head of Data Sciences Institute (DSI) at Takeda.[1][7][8]
On February 19, 2020, the MIT Jameel Clinic's faculty leads for AI and life sciences, ProfessorRegina Barzilay and ProfessorJim Collins, published a paper inCell confirming the discovery—for the first time bydeep learning—ofhalicin, the first newantibiotic compound for 30 years, which kills over 35 powerfulbacteria, includingantimicrobial-resistanttuberculosis, the superbugC. difficile, and two of theWorld Health Organization's top-three most deadly bacteria.[9][10][11][12][13]
In 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, the MIT Jameel Clinic launched theAI Cures initiative to apply AI techniques to the discovery of effectivetherapeutics for the disease, and the development of medical devices. The AI Cures initiative is in partnership with thePatrick J. McGovern Foundation, theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and theWalter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).[14]
In September and October 2020, the MIT Jameel Clinic convened two conferences, on data-driven clinical solutions for COVID-19, and on drug discovery.[15][16]
In June 2020,The Audacious Project (formerly theTED Prize), housed atTED and supported byThe Bridgespan Group, selected Professor Collins and an MIT Jameel Clinic team, including Professor Barzilay, for funding. Building on the halicin discovery, the Audacious Project funding will support the MIT Jameel Clinic's response to the antibiotic resistance crisis through the development of new classes of antibiotics to protect patients against some of the world's deadliest bacterial pathogens.[17][18]
In July 2021, a gift from Mark Schwartz enabled the MIT Jameel Clinic to partner with theRagon Institute (a collaboration betweenMassachusetts General Hospital,Harvard University and MIT) and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing to create a collaborative initiative for AI andimmunology.[19]
With a GBP 3.5m grant fromWellcome Trust, the MIT Jameel Clinic is teaming up with hospitals around the globe to bring AI into mainstream healthcare.[20][21][22] To date, the network has extended to 41 hospitals in 13 countries.[22] In providing free access to AI tools, the Jameel Clinic aims to contribute the expertise of its researchers to empower healthcare systems by accelerating the mainstream usage of AI tools on a global scale.[22]
On 25 May 2023, the MIT Jameel Clinic's faculty leads for life sciences, Jim Collins, and for AI, Regina Barzilay, and colleagues published a paper inNature Chemical Biology announcing the deep learning-guided discover ofabaucin, an antibiotic targetingAcinetobacter baumannii, one of the WHO's top-three deadliest bacteria in the world.[23][24][25]
The MIT Jameel Clinic leadership comprises three faculty leads:
The faculty leads are supported by the Jameel Clinic staff, and coordinate with the Dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing,Daniel P. Huttenlocher.[26][27]
The MIT Jameel Clinic is supported by anadvisory board, chaired by ProfessorPhil Sharp, winner of the 1993Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,Institute Professor, former director of theKoch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and theMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, and co-founder ofBiogen.[28]
Other members of the advisory board are:
Former members of the advisory board include: