AI System Developed in Russia to Accelerate Research in Chemistry and Medicine

Researchers at Russia’s ITMO University have developed an AI system that automates the full cycle of scientific research, the university’s press service said. The system, called CoScientist, acts as a full-fledged research assistant capable of handling high-level tasks such as literature analysis, data selection, and training AI models to search for new molecules and compounds. It can also identify promising candidate molecules based on multiple criteria. The developers say the system could significantly accelerate chemical and medical research.

According to the university, CoScientist combines a multi-agent system with a multi-agent workflow, described as a structured sequence of actions and rules used to perform tasks.

Human-AI Collaboration

Anna Kalyuzhnaya, the project’s lead and a senior researcher at the Strong AI in Industry research center, said the multi-agent system functions as a coordinator while the workflow performs specific tasks.

Researchers are already using the system to develop treatments for multiple sclerosis. In the future, the developers plan to expand its capabilities to engineering fields.