Antibiotic resistance is among the biggest global threats to human health. It was directly responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths in 2019 and contributed to nearly five million more. The problem only got worse during the COVID pandemic.
A team at the laboratory of James Collins of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University used a type of AI known as deep learning to screen millions of compounds for antibiotic activity. They then tested 283 promising compounds in mice and found several that were effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci—some of the most stubbornly hard-to-kill pathogens. Unlike a typical AI model, which operates as an inscrutable “black box,” it was possible to follow this model’s reasoning and understand the biochemistry behind it.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-class-of-antibiotics-discovered-using-ai/