AI-designed drugs give scientists foothold in mission to thwart antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A major study published in The Lancet in September 2024 estimated more than a million deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections globally each year since 1990
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have achieved a breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, using artificial intelligence (AI) to design completely new antibiotics from scratch—molecules that have never before existed in nature or laboratories.
The AI system analysed more than 45 million molecular fragments, using machine learning algorithms to predict which combinations might kill bacteria while remaining safe for human cells. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The AI-designed drugs successfully treated some infections in laboratory animals, including strains of bacteria that resist all current antibiotics, according to research published on Wednesday in the journal Cell. The work represents the first time that artificial intelligence has been used to create
Binayak Dasgupta is a senior editor at Hindustan Times, New Delhi, where he has worked since 2013. He heads the paper's Page 1 team and is part of the editorial leadership overseeing daily news operations. He has previously led the national news desk. His work sits at the intersection of specialist depth and emerging public consequence — stories where complexity and nuance are in themselves the journalistic challenge. He shapes Hindustan Times's coverage and editorial positions on technology and artificial intelligence, information security, environment, health and science — steering these subjects from the commissioning of reporting to editing and the framing of the paper’s institutional view. His work spans analysis, commentary and reportage, and in the past, he has led the paper's coverage of Covid-19 pandemic science. His interviews and hosted sessions include Nobel laureates, technology leaders, economists and climate justice scholars. In recent months, Binayak has overseen coverage of the Air India Flight 171 crash and its investigation, India's energy exposure during the West Asia conflict, the trade dispute with the US, Delhi's air quality emergency and the evolving conversations around AI, including the IndiaAI Summit.
