Scientists use AI to discover powerful antibiotic

According to Nature Chemical Biology, the result is a powerful experimental antibiotic called abaucin, which will undergo further testing before being used as a treatment.

Dr. Jonathan Stokes, a researcher at McMaster University in Canada, called the bacterium under study Acinetobacter baumannii public enemy number one because it is indeed often found to be resistant to almost all antibiotics.

The study described has shown that AI can greatly accelerate the discovery of new drugs, including bacteria-killing antibiotics, but they become increasingly difficult to treat as they develop resistance to existing drugs.

Researchers have focused on one of the most vexing types of bacteria that can infect wounds and cause pneumonia, and although it’s not talked about much, it’s one of three superbugs the WHO defines as a critical threat.

The next step with the antibiotic abaucin is to refine it in the laboratory and conduct clinical trials, although early experiments have shown that it can treat infected wounds in mice and destroy A. baumannii specimens in patients.