By integrating AI, experimental science, and interdisciplinary training, the UW School of Pharmacy’s new Institute for Innovations in Drug Disposition and Delivery (I2D3) will accelerate drug discovery and improve how medicines are manufactured (or formulated) and delivered, ensuring they reach the right place in the body with greater safety, effectiveness, and precision.
Co-directed by Marco Pravetoni, PhD from the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the School of Pharmacy’s Gaurav Bhardwaj, PhD, and Nina Isoherranen, PhD, the institute brings together expertise in drug discovery, artificial intelligence, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and biotechnology in an effort to ease the bottleneck between the identification of promising molecules and the development of successful drugs.
The institute opened in July 2026 with Dr. Pravetoni leading the drug discovery, translation, and commercialization efforts for the group. His research focuses on novel treatments for substance use disorders and drug overdose, including developing vaccines, antibodies, and next-generation antibody-like molecules that target drugs in the body.
“With new AI tools,” says Pravetoni, “instead of working to design 10 antibody candidates in a lab, we could design 1,000 or more, and then we can accumulate enough data to reduce any risks, so that what we bring to clinical trials is more likely to be successful.”
The Institute for Protein Design (IPD) has already established UW Medicine as a world leader in designing novel proteins, and the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) offers outstanding capabilities in clinical testing and implementation. However, there remains a critical gap between discovery and clinical application, one that focuses on the pharmaceutical development needed to turn promising innovations into viable therapeutic products.
“That’s where I2D3 can play a leading role,” says Pravetoni. “For example, when researchers at IPD develop a new protein, we can partner with them early to address formulation, manufacturability, stability, delivery, and other key pharmaceutical considerations that are essential for advancing a discovery toward the clinic and ultimately the marketplace.”
