Kantify applies AI to rare neuromuscular disease research

Belgian AI company Kantify shifted its focus to health after CTO Nik Subramanian was diagnosed with sarcoma in 2017. The company is now contributing to DREAMS, a five-year EU-funded research initiative seeking better treatments for a group of five rare neuromuscular disorders that progressively weaken muscle function.

Rare disease drug development remains slow, costly and risky, with only around 5-6% of the estimated 7,000 to 10,000 rare diseases having an approved therapy. DREAMS researchers are studying conditions including Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients to create skeletal muscle tissue in the lab and identify shared cellular mechanisms.

The team is using AI to analyze drug and disease data, including a library of 2,700 EMA- and FDA-approved drugs, to predict which compounds may work across related conditions. Kantify’s Sapian platform generates hypotheses for drug repurposing, while researchers test candidates in patient-derived muscle cells. The project concludes at the end of 2028, with future progress dependent on clinical testing and proposed basket trials that group patients by shared biological causes rather than symptoms alone.