MIT Uses AI - Discovers Antibiotic - a 1st

MIT Scientists' Antibiotic Breakthrough

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Drug Kills Antibiotic Resistant, Killer Bacteria

MIT scientists have achieved a world first.  They've used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover what may be the world's most powerful antibiotic.  The power and promise of the drug is its ability to fight the growing global epidemic of deadly bacteria  resistant to antibiotics.  The World Health Organization calls these bacteria one of the biggest threats to global health.  The MIT discovered molecule kills antibiotic resistant, killer bacteria.

Machine Learning Algorithm

The key to the MIT team's success is artificial intelligence and the powerful algorithm they created.  The MIT scientists say the algorithm was inspired by the architecture of the human brain.  The algorithm analyzed millions of chemical compounds and thousands of drugs to identify those with enough attributes to kill e-coli.  Through the process, they identified a molecule called Halicin, which had been investigated as a potential diabetes drug.

Halicin

The scientists found that Halicin is able to kill 35 types of potentially deadly, drug-resistant bacteria including e-coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Some of the bacterial strains Halicin proved effective against had no known cures.  In a 30 day treatment use of the drug on "mouse models" in the lab, e-coli developed no resistance to the drug.

Next Steps

This remarkable drug discovery was just published in the journal Cell.  The MIT team hopes to work with a pharmaceutical company or non-profit to develop and commercialize the drug for human use. This is being hailed as one of the most powerful antibiotics developed to date.