Noor Shaker ( ar, نور شاكر) is a Syrian entrepreneur and computer scientist who co-founded the AI for drug discovery start-u
Glamorous AI
Glamorous AI was acquired by the US-based company X-Chem in Nov 2021. Before Glamorous AI, Noor founded the drug discovery start-up GTN Ltd and served as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

for more than two years. She stepped down as CEO in August 2019. The company entered liquidation in March 2020. In 2018, she received a CogX UK Rising Star Award from Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

for "AI technology that will transform drug discovery to treat chronic diseases".

Career

Shaker studied for a bachelor's degree in computer science at the

University of Damascus The University of Damascus ( ar, جَامِعَةُ دِمَشْقَ, ''Jāmi‘atu Dimashq'') is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus and has campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 through ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, specialising early on in artificial intelligence studies. Her work there included the development of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

incorporation into the

Speech Synthesis Markup Language Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) is an XML-based markup language for speech synthesis applications. It is a recommendation of the W3C's Voice Browser Working Group. SSML is often embedded in VoiceXML scripts to drive interactive telephony sy ...

for speech-to-text software. She moved to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

for her master's degree at

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

, specialising in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

. In 2009 she moved to

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

to study a PhD and continue as a postdoc in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

at the

IT University of Copenhagen The IT University of Copenhagen (Danish language, Danish: ''IT-Universitetet i København'', abbreviated ITU) is a public university and research institution in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is specialized in the Academic discipline#Multidisciplinary, ...

. She remained in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

for several years, being appointed an assistant professor at

Aalborg University Aalborg University (AAU) is a Danish public university with campuses in Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Copenhagen founded in 1974. The university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD degrees in a wide variety of subjects within humanities ...

in 2016. Her research focused on the use of machine learning in affective computing and video games. This extended to co-organising competitions to produce AIs which could tackle video games or generate new levels to fit the user, most notably using

Super Mario (also known as and ) is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every m ...

. During her professorial career she co-wrote a textbook titled "Procedural Content Generation in Gaming" and authored over thirty academic publications. In 2017 Shaker co-founded GTN Ltd (Generative Tensorial Networks), a startup aiming to combine quantum computing and AI for drug discovery. Shaker stepped down from her role as

of the company in August 2019. The company entered liquidation in March 2020. The company aimed to combine machine learning techniques and quantum physics simulations in order to predict better therapeutics for medical use. Combining artificial intelligence with quantum models of published molecular structures may prove a novel and effective method to predict binding partners to disease regulators. In 2020, she started her third venture, the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

based start-u
Glamorous AI
The company is a continuation of the journey she started earlier aiming at developing innovative solutions in drug discovery. The company aims at integrating experts chemistry knowledge with advanced ML to enable rapid discovery of new chemical entities of desired properties. Shaker and Glamorous AI have established relationships within academia, such as Cardiff University to discover possible COVID-19 drugs using Glamorous AI's platform, RosalindAI. In Nov 2021, GlamorousAI was acquired by the US company X-Chem for an undisclosed amount to bring AI capabilities to preclinical drug discovery. Shaker currently serves as a Senior Vice President and General Manager of X-Chem's London office. Shaker is serving as an advisory panel member for Artificial Intelligence and Informatics in

Rosalind Franklin Institute The Rosalind Franklin Institute is medical research centre supported by the Government of the United Kingdom located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, England. It is named after an English chemist Rosalind Franklin, whose ...

. She has received several accolades, including being named one of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2021. One of the BBC 100 Women in 2019. A'Rising Star' among BioBeat's 2018 list of 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness. Representing GTN, she was awarded a CogX UK Rising Star Award in 2018 for her innovative AI techniques for drug discovery and success in securing seed funding and prestigious collaborations. Shaker is often a speaker at AI events (including those aimed at women in the industry) and chairs the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Computational Intelligence: Games Technical Committee.

Awards and honours

*2013:

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games Outstanding Paper Award for ‘Crowd-sourcing the Aesthetics off Platform Games’. *2018: Innovators Under 35 by

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

*2018: 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness by BioBeat *2018: Rising Star by CogX *2019:

BBC 100 Women ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's women ...

*2021: Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2021

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaker, Noor Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Syrian computer scientists Syrian women computer scientists Artificial intelligence researchers KU Leuven alumni Damascus University alumni BBC 100 Women