Core Insights - The article highlights the journey of David Fajgenbaum, who transformed his personal battle with a rare disease into a mission to repurpose existing drugs for treating rare diseases, leveraging AI technology to identify new treatment options [3][4][10]. Group 1: Background and Motivation - David Fajgenbaum, a physician and researcher, was diagnosed with Castleman disease, a rare immune disorder, during his undergraduate studies, leading to a near-fatal experience [3][4]. - The medical system primarily focuses on known diseases, leaving a significant number of diseases without approved treatments; approximately 14,000 out of 18,000 known diseases lack any approved therapies [3][9][13]. - Fajgenbaum's experience with the limitations of the medical system motivated him to find new uses for existing drugs to help patients with rare diseases [4][10][18]. Group 2: Establishment of Every Cure - Fajgenbaum founded a non-profit organization called Every Cure, which developed an AI system named MATRIX to analyze biomedical knowledge and predict potential drug repurposing opportunities [4][21]. - The MATRIX system can match approximately 4,000 approved drugs with around 18,000 diseases, resulting in up to 75 million possible combinations [21][22]. - Every Cure aims to prioritize the most challenging diseases and utilize AI to streamline the drug repurposing process, significantly reducing the time required for generating potential treatment scores from 100 days to just 17 hours [25][23]. Group 3: Achievements and Impact - Every Cure has successfully identified new treatment options for patients with rare diseases, including a case where a patient with angiosarcoma found a new treatment that allowed him to witness significant life events [7][20]. - The organization has also helped patients like Kaila and a Vancouver patient find effective treatments after standard therapies failed [7][20]. - Fajgenbaum emphasizes the importance of combining AI with human expertise to enhance the effectiveness of treatment discovery, ensuring that the focus remains on patient outcomes [28][29].