Apr 13, 2021 - Strong growth of FMCG companies in Q4 will likely be a mirage

From the Editor's Desk

Artificial intelligence can now design new antibiotics in a matter of days

IBM's new AI system could also help design treatments for Covid-19.

Imagine you're a scientist who needs to discover a new antibiotic to fight off a scary disease. How would you go about finding it?

Typically, you'd have to test lots and lots of different molecules in the lab until you find one that has the necessary bacteria-killing properties. You might find some contenders that are good at killing the bacteria only to realize that you can't use them because they also prove toxic to humans. It's a very long, very expensive, and probably very aggravating process.

But what if, instead, you could just type into your computer the properties you're looking for and have your computer design the perfect molecule for you?

That's the general approach IBM researchers are taking, using an AI system that can automatically generate the design of molecules for new antibiotics. In a new paper, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the researchers detail how they've already used it to quickly design two new antimicrobial peptides - small molecules that can kill bacteria - that are effective against a bunch of different pathogens in mice.

Continued here

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