New AI model to design superbug-fighting antibiotics

The researchers said that the worldwide spread of drug-resistant bacteria has created an urgent need for new antibiotics, but even modern AI methods are limited at isolating promising chemical compounds, particularly when researchers must also find ways to manufacture and test these new AI-guided drugs.

This new generative AI model, named SyntheMol, can design new antibiotics to counter this problem – in particular, to stop the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified as one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The researchers said that A. baumannii is ‘notoriously difficult to eradicate’ and can cause pneumonia, meningitis and infect wounds. They added that few treatment options remain.

In a statement, lead author and an assistant professor in McMaster’s Department of Biomedicine & Biochemistry, Jonathan Stokes, said: “Antibiotics are a unique medicine. As soon as we begin to employ them in the clinic, we're starting a timer before the drugs become ineffective, because bacteria evolve quickly to resist them.