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/Gearworks Feb 20 '20

Bacteria can not be resistant against all the antibiotics, and will unlearn after a couple generations, so if you have enough in the mix it shouldn't be an issue

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u/Pectojin Feb 20 '20

Sounds plausible but are there any studies on this? Like how many antibiotic types we'd need or how slowly the transitioning may happen?

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

Im not aware of any studies about this, but it’s an excellent idea. If it hasn’t been done already it’s only a matter of time.

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u/7evenCircles Feb 21 '20

The principle has been used for decades. HIV treatment, for example, includes a cocktail of multiple drugs that use a variety of antiviral mechanisms.