In the past few months alone, artificial intelligence (AI) has played a significant role as the world learns more about and tries to curb the effects of the novel coronavirus outbreak. From contributing to early detection and diagnosis of the infection to projecting cases and mortality rates, AI has been a leader in efficiently processing and analyzing the evolving data that we have about the coronavirus.

AI technology has also helped pharmaceutical companies in the search and development of new drugs for disease treatment. Using machine learning in drug discovery may help accelerate the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 as more data is uncovered.

How It Works

Companies have used AI to detect patterns in large volumes of data, identifying differences and similarities in different cells, genes and more to find indicators of what can cause a disease and what changes can cure it.

For example, biotechnology company Berg performed tests on more than 1000 cancerous and healthy human cell samples to identify new cancer mechanisms. By varying the levels of sugar and oxygen to which the cells were exposed to model diseased cells, the researchers were able to track the differences between diseased and healthy cells using real-world patient data.

London-based Benevolent pulls analysis from source data such as research papers, patents, clinical trials, patient records and more to curate and standardize the knowledge into the company’s knowledge graph. The graph contextualizes the information, predicts potential disease targets that can be overlooked, evaluates molecular structures and more. The company has been using its knowledge graph to help identify a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Personalized Cure Discovery

AI can help identify treatments for more than physical diseases. For psychological diseases such as depression, AI is also able to recreate gene and cell models to find cures.

In the future, as the technology of AI for drug discovery and development continues to develop, treatments for more unique ailments that differ from person to person may be easier and more efficient to create.

Personalized health care has already been made more accessible through wearables and other technology, and AI may further accelerate its growth.

Learn more about how artificial intelligence has changed during the COVID-19 outbreak.