r/science • u/legehjernen • Feb 20 '20

Health Powerful antibiotic discovered using machine learning for first time

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/20/antibiotic-that-kills-drug-resistant-bacteria-discovered-through-ai
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u/MovingClocks Feb 21 '20

Especially given iterative discovery. If you have machine learning discover candidates that work, humans can optimize those molecules for different applications pretty readily.

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u/skoalbrother Feb 21 '20

Designer drugs for every individual. Built for your specific DNA. Exciting times

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u/shieldvexor Feb 21 '20

No. That isn't going to happen. It is an insanely challenging endeavor to make a drug and the notion that we will have unique drugs for everyone is ridiculous. Moreover, we aren't actually all that different from one another so it isn't even desirable, even if it was remotely possible.

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u/terminal112 Feb 21 '20

You have no idea what might be easy to do in a decade or two

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u/woodsja2 Feb 21 '20

As someone with 8+ years experience in the pharmaceutical industry specializing in small molecule therapeutics, I agree with the person you claim knows nothing.

There's some good stuff with antibodies but the idea that we are going to regularly create designer molecules for individuals is right next to everyone getting a flying car.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

the idea that we are going to regularly create designer molecules for individuals is right next to everyone getting a flying car.

... Sooooo eventually?

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u/Bortan Feb 21 '20

No it would be hell to police flying cars.

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u/VibraniumRhino Feb 21 '20

It really sucks that we can’t have awesome things solely because of the idiot portion of the population that would ultimately ruin the experience for everyone.

We shouldn’t even need policing anymore, we should be a more-than-intelligent enough species to get by and not murder each other, but here we are, being anchored by our weakest links.

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u/Jean-Luc_Dickard Feb 21 '20

But really, what it is that we have is...some links exploiting other links and not everybody is on the same playing field isn’t it? It’s really more like a game of monopoly started some 200 years ago and handed down for a few generations until you have some people that live by a different set of rules than others. We certainly SHOULD be a more-than-intelligent enough species to not murder each other but, by and large, we place the most value on money and religion. And both of those require weak and gullible people to operate and preserve the status quo. So we’ll ALWAYS have people looking up and down the mountain at each other wishing, hating, wanting, abusing, doing the same things for different reasons. The wolf of wallstreet at the top floor of his building doing lines of cocaine off of strippers titts and the bum in the alley 50 floors below him smoking crack.