Thinking Allowed

Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic

2020-03-04 21:13:52

Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic: A deep-learning model identifies a powerful new drug that can kill many species of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “The idea of using predictive computer models for “in silico” screening is not new, but until now, these models were not sufficiently accurate to transform drug discovery. Previously, molecules were represented as vectors reflecting the presence or absence of certain chemical groups. However, the new neural networks can learn these representations automatically, mapping molecules into continuous vectors which are subsequently used to predict their properties. In this case, the researchers designed their model to look for chemical features that make molecules effective at killing E. coli. To do so, they trained the model on about 2,500 molecules, including about 1,700 FDA-approved drugs and a set of 800 natural products with diverse structures and a wide range of bioactivities.“

Source: news.mit.edu

molecules yields vectors new antibiotic model chemical models

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