Over the past few decades, data generation has veritably exploded. However, the'Big Data paradigm' is not so much concerned with the volume of that data, but how businesses and, indeed, industries can derive meaningful insights from what has become a glut of information. With the currently popular approach to artificial intelligence (AI) focussing on the Big Data paradigm, also, pharmaphorum spoke with Adityo Prakash, CEO of Verseon, about the whys and wherefores, delving deeper into the processes for dealing with the current mountain of data and how it can be generated, as well as the purposes for which it can be dealt with constructively, and efficiently. "The fundamental underlying assumption is that an enormous amount of data is available to teach an AI programme how to handle the problem at hand," Prakash began. However, he explained, "the number of known examples to train AI is at least many thousands of times larger than the number of variables or features to be tracked."

Peptides are the hottest area of new drug development. Medications derived from these "short" naturally occurringproteins – a midpoint between small molecules and large antibodies -- are highly targeted and often much less toxic than other treatments. It's no wonder, then, that peptide-derived drugs have become a $20 billion market, expected to grow to $43 billion by 2024, according to Zion Market Research. Insulin is probably the most famous peptide drug. Newer peptide-derived medicines like Victoza and Byetta also treat diabetes; Zoladex, Lupron and Sandostatin are used to fight cancer.

Artificial intelligence robots are turbocharging the race to find new drugs for the crippling nerve disorder ALS, or motor neurone disease. The condition, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, attacks and kills nerve cells controlling muscles, leading to weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure. There are only two drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), one available since 1995 and the other approved just this year. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed a year globally and there is no cure for the disease, famously suffered by cosmologist Stephen Hawking. "Many doctors call it the worst disease in medicine and the unmet need is huge," said Richard Mead of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, who has found artificial intelligence (AI) is already speeding up his work. They analyze huge chemical, biological and medical databases, alongside reams of scientific papers, far quicker than humanly possible, throwing up new biological targets and potential drugs.

Artificial intelligence robots are turbocharging the race to find new drugs for the crippling nerve disorder ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease. The condition attacks and kills nerve cells controlling muscles, leading to weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure. There are only two drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), one available since 1995 and the other approved just this year. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed a year globally, and there is no cure. "Many doctors call it the worst disease in medicine, and the unmet need is huge," said Richard Mead of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, who has found artificial intelligence (AI) is already speeding up his work.

LONDON (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence robots are turbo-charging the race to find new drugs for the crippling nerve disorder ALS, or motor neurone disease. The condition, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, attacks and kills nerve cells controlling muscles, leading to weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure. There are only two drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), one available since 1995 and the other approved just this year. About 140,000 new cases are diagnosed a year globally and there is no cure for the disease, famously suffered by cosmologist Stephen Hawking. "Many doctors call it the worst disease in medicine and the unmet need is huge," said Richard Mead of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, who has found artificial intelligence (AI) is already speeding up his work. They analyze huge chemical, biological and medical databases, alongside reams of scientific papers, far quicker than humanly possible, throwing up new biological targets and potential drugs.