Largest-Ever Discovery Effort Uncovers 800,000 New Antibiotic Candidates

Researchers at Penn Medicine analyzed genomic data to discover new antibiotics within the global microbiome.
Nearly a century after the groundbreaking introduction of antibiotics such as penicillin, which transformed medicine by tapping into the natural antibacterial properties of microbes, a new study led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania indicates natural-product antibiotic discovery is about to accelerate into a new era, powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

The study, published in the journal Cell, details how the researchers used a form of AI called machine learning to search for antibiotics in a vast dataset containing the recorded genomes of tens of thousands of bacteria and other primitive organisms. This unprecedented effort yielded nearly one million potential antibiotic compounds, with dozens showing promising activity in initial tests against disease-causing bacteria.