Scientists identify hundreds of drug candidates to treat COVID-19

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have used machine learning to identify hundreds of new potential drugs that could help treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. "There is an urgent need to identify effective drugs that treat or prevent COVID-19," said Anandasankar Ray, a professor of molecular, cell, and systems biology who led the research. "We have developed a drug discovery pipeline that identified several candidates." The drug discovery pipeline is a type of computational strategy linked to artificial intelligence -- a computer algorithm that learns to predict activity through trial and error, improving over time. With no clear end in sight, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives, strained health care systems, and weakened economies.