AstraZeneca possesses comprehensive expertise in drug discovery and development, ranging from early-stage hit identification to the global production of registered drugs. The AstraZeneca Gothenburg R&D site, where the fellows will be hosted, is home to approximately 3000 internationally-renowned scientists. These experts work across all of AstraZeneca's research therapy areas, including cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, metabolic diseases, respiratory diseases, immunological disorders, cancer, and rare diseases. A notable characteristic of the Gothenburg site is its capability to provide the vast majority of the resources and expertise necessary to support the full lifecycle of a medicine.
AstraZeneca's computational chemists have been pioneers in machine learning for drug discovery. As part of the fellowship program, the fellows will acquire knowledge in advanced computational methods for drug discovery. They will also explore the theoretical foundations of innovative algorithms for molecular generation, molecular dynamics, reaction prediction, and the evaluation of focused library quality in a practical drug discovery industry setting. The Molecular AI section, set to host the PhD fellows, is co-located with the chemistry automation laboratory. This arrangement affords the fellows ample opportunities to investigate the synergy between AI and automation.