AI Widens Search Spaces and Promises More Hits in Drug Discovery

Traditional drug discovery techniques are all about brute force--and a little bit of luck. Basically, large-scale, high-throughput screening is used to cover a search space. The process is a little like conducting antisubmarine warfare without the benefit of sonar. Unsurprisingly, very few of the depth charges (drug candidates) hit their targets and achieve the desired results (successful clinical trials). The seas are simply too vast.