AI-designed drugs give scientists foothold in mission to thwart antibiotic-resistant bacteria

A major study published in The Lancet in September 2024 estimated more than a million deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections globally each year since 1990

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have achieved a breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, using artificial intelligence (AI) to design completely new antibiotics from scratch—molecules that have never before existed in nature or laboratories.

The AI system analysed more than 45 million molecular fragments, using machine learning algorithms to predict which combinations might kill bacteria while remaining safe for human cells. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)