An artificial intelligence model designed new antibiotics to fight gonorrhea and mRSA superbugs.
The overuse of antibiotics can create resistance, when the drugs kill off all but those bacteria most capable of surviving the treatment. It has led to the rise of some bugs that are all but impossible to treat with existing antibiotics, raising fears that modern medicine and surgery — reliant on antibiotics — could collapse, given that few new antibiotics are produced.
The new drugs were designed atom-by-atom using AI, and while they are a long way from the clinic, researchers hoped they could create a new pipeline for drugs. AI is rapidly transforming drug development and biology, allowing scientists to better predict how molecules behave in the body.