• Question: does artificial intelligent have a big role in the synthesis of drugs?

    Asked by sloth-savior to David, Sarah, Zoe on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sarah Ashwood

      Sarah Ashwood answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Not so much artificial intelligence at the moment – though this could be the direction that technology is going in. We use robots in the lab to weigh specific quantities of chemicals (particularly if you are repeating a reaction 20-30 times with slight changes). We also use a process of intelligent design which uses statistical algorithms and properties to take data from reactions and speculate what would happen if you changed certain things in the reaction to predict which would be the best reaction to run.

    • Photo: David Foley

      David Foley answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      We are being to use such methods to understand how all the various systems and reaction pathways that make up a cell work. A cell is a highly complex network and machines are very good at analyzing interactions and connections between networks. The field is called bioinformatics and it is a very new, very trendy field in science at the moment.

      If they can use this to identify key nodes in the network that we can target it may lead to more effective drugs with less potential for resistance

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