Athos Therapeutics Chooses Vultr for Secure AI Training in Cloud

Athos Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology firm, is advancing the development of precision therapeutics for patients with immune-mediated diseases and cancer, leveraging Vultr’s cloud computing platform. Vultr, known as the largest privately-held cloud computing platform worldwide, provides Athos with Cloud GPU services to facilitate the training, tuning, and inference of their AI models. This partnership is underpinned by NVIDIA HGX H100 systems and Dell Technologies' PowerEdge XE9680 servers, ensuring the security and confidentiality of Athos’ intellectual property, omics data, and proprietary AI algorithms.

Athos is a front-runner in applying AI and machine learning (ML) to create precision small-molecule therapeutics for those suffering from autoimmune diseases and cancer. The company is spearheaded by one of the founders of Kite Pharma and a medicinal chemist behind two significant FDA-approved drugs. Athos is committed to unraveling the complexity of autoimmune and cancer biology by assessing diseases at a molecular level. This effort is supported by partnerships with top-tier hospitals including the Cleveland Clinic, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, and the University of Ioannina Medical School, facilitating the multi-omics analysis of over 25,000 human patients. In collaboration with Caltech, Athos uses spectrometry-based proteomics on cultured cells and biopsies from archived patient samples.

To speed up the creation of precision therapeutics, Athos required a cost-effective, adaptable, and high-performance cloud infrastructure. Public cloud providers were becoming prohibitively costly, and they offered limited engineering support, which led Athos to choose Vultr. Vultr provides secure and compliant access to NVIDIA GPUs, essential for training Athos’ AI algorithms. This collaboration allows Athos' autonomous AI analytical platform, including its data lake and advanced integrative deep machine learning engine, to efficiently train on large datasets while ensuring compliance with data sovereignty, data residency, and privacy regulations.

Amit Rai, General Manager of AI and Enterprise Cloud at Vultr, emphasized the commitment to democratizing access to high-performance cloud compute, particularly for highly regulated industries like biotech. He highlighted the partnership's alignment with Vultr's mission to provide secure, scalable infrastructure to support Athos as it scales and continues to deliver groundbreaking therapeutics globally.

Travis Vigil, Senior Vice President of ISG Product Management at Dell Technologies, echoed this sentiment, stressing the vital role of reliable computing power in revolutionary medical research. With Vultr’s platform operating on Dell servers, Athos is equipped to run AI workloads securely at scale, advancing precision small molecule therapeutics aimed at improving numerous lives.

By adopting Vultr’s AI cloud platform, Athos benefits from scalable and agile cloud GPU resources, a user-friendly interface, continuous monitoring and management, and unmatched security and confidentiality. The platform also offers 24/7 support for disaster recovery, engineering assistance, and maintenance, ensuring the resilience and reliability of Athos’ operations.

Dr. Dimitrios Iliopoulos, President and CEO of Athos, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration with Vultr and Dell. He highlighted how Vultr’s support has minimized downtime and maximized productivity, enabling Athos to progress towards providing novel precision therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

In summary, the partnership between Athos Therapeutics and Vultr exemplifies the critical intersection of biotechnology and cloud computing, aiming to revolutionize the development of precision therapeutics through advanced AI and machine learning capabilities.