Research team develops AI platform to combat COVID-19, infectious diseases

Editor's Note:

A research team led by the University of Singapore has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform called, “IDentif.AI” (Indentifying Infectious Disease Combination Therapy with Artificial Intelligence) to increase efficiency in the development of treatments that combine several different drugs.

The researchers selected 12 drugs that are viable candidates for treating an infection in lung cells caused by the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). They then used IDentif.AI to reduce the number of experiments needed to find the full range of combinations and optimal dosages of the 12 drugs.

It took the AI platform 3 days to identify multiple optimal drug regimens out of billions of possible combinations that reduced the VSV infection to 1.5%.

Having proved the effectiveness of the platform, the research team is now turning their attention to COVID-19.