25-09 - Flipbook - Page 129
September
August 2025
through a library of millions of chemical fragments, eight to 19 atoms in size, and built from
there. The second gave the AI free rein from the start.
The design process also weeded out anything that looked too similar to current antibiotics.
It also tried to ensure they were inventing medicines rather than soap and to filter out anything predicted to be toxic to humans. Scientists used AI to create antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA, a type of bacteria that lives harmlessly on the skin but can cause a serious
infection if it enters the body.
Once manufactured, the leading designs were tested on bacteria in the lab and on infected mice, resulting in two new potential drugs. "We're excited because we show that generative AI can be used to design completely new antibiotics," Prof James Collins, from MIT,
tells the BBC.
"AI can enable us to come up with molecules, cheaply and quickly and in this way, expand
our arsenal, and really give us a leg up in the battle of our wits against the genes of superbugs." However, they are not ready for clinical trials and the drugs will require refinement 3
estimated to take another one to two year's work 3 before the long process of testing them
in people could begin.
Dr Andrew Edwards, from the Fleming Initiative and Imperial College London, said the work
was "very significant" with "enormous potential" because it "demonstrates a novel approach
to identifying new antibiotics".
But he added: "While AI promises to dramatically improve drug discovery and development, we still need to do the hard yards when it comes to testing safety and efficacy."
That can be a long and expensive process with no guarantee that the experimental medicines will be prescribed to patients at the end.
Some are calling for AI drug discovery more broadly to improve. Prof Collins says "we need
better models" that move beyond how well the drugs perform in the laboratory to ones that
are a better predictor of their effectiveness in the body.
There is also an issue with how challenging the AI-designs are to manufacture. Of the top 80
gonorrhoea treatments designed in theory, only two were synthesised to create medicines.
Prof Chris Dowson, at the University of Warwick, said the study was "cool" and showed AI
was a "significant step forward as a tool for antibiotic discovery to mitigate against the
emergence of resistance".
However, he explains, there is also an economic problem factoring into drug-resistant infections - "how do you make drugs that have no commercial value?"
If a new antibiotic was invented, then ideally you would use it as little as possible to preserve
its effectiveness, making it hard for anyone to turn a profit.
