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The Elevate 2019 technology festival underway in Toronto held a day-long program dedicated to AI on Wednesday, with ������Ƶ startups stirring up excitement with announcements about key project milestones.

The third day of Canada’s largest technology festival saw Brendan Frey, CEO of Deep Genomics, reveal that the company’s cutting-edge AI drug discovery platform has identified a genetic mutation linked to Wilson disease, a rare and potentially life-threatening genetic disorder, and honed in on a molecule that holds treatment potential, .

“We are delighted to nominate the first ever AI-discovered therapeutic candidate and are eager to move it rapidly into the clinic for the potential benefit of patients,” said Frey, a professor in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering with cross appointments in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, in a press release.

that AI-powered customer analytics platform ODAIA, whose co-founders include Assistant Professor Periklis Andritsos of the Faculty of Information and Adjunct Professor Helen Kontozopoulos (also a co-founder of the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab, or DCSIL) used the event to announce it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding.

Enthusiasm surrounding U of T's startup ecosystem also extends to students, Keri Damen, managing director of U of T Entrepreneurship, . 

“There’s a huge appetite coming from the students themselves that they want to work for new companies, startups and scale-ups, especially in the social innovation and social entrepreneurship space,” Damen said.

The U of T Entrepreneuship booth at the Elevate tech festival (photo courtesy of the Elevate Tech Festival)