INDUSTRY News
Neural networks to
Scientists at the MIT Broad Institute in the US are using neural networks and their deep-learning capability to develop working therapeutics against emerging health threats.
Data scientists use deep learning to select drug combinations with large existing datasets, for diseases like cancer and cardiovascular problems for example, but are now also using them to target new illnesses with limited data.
To fight Covid-19, a relatively new illness, the scientists used a neural network model to teach it to mine for new drug combinations by drug-target interaction and drug- drug synergy, since drug synergy often occurs through inhibition of biological targets like proteins or nucleic acids. The drug-target predictor models the interaction between a drug and a set of known biological targets that are related to the chosen disease. The target-disease association predictor learns to understand a drug’s antiviral activity, which means determining the virus yield in infected tissue cultures; together, they can predict the synergy of two drugs.
“In contrast to previous approaches using drug- target interaction as fixed descriptors, our method learns to predict drug-target interaction from molecular structures. This is advantageous since a large proportion of compounds have incomplete drug-target interaction information,” said Wengong Jin, CSAIL PhD and MIT Broad Institute PhD.
As a result of this approach, two new drug combinations were found: Remdesivir – currently approved by the FDA to treat Covid-19, and Reserpine, shown to be a powerful weapon against the virus.
The model has been found to successfully fight the increasingly-contagious delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, but also HIV and pancreatic cancer.
ABB COLUMN
ROBOTS SHOULD BE PART OF THE CURRICULUM
N
elson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. As more companies look
to automate their processes, adding robots to the curriculum offers a valuable opportunity to nurture talent and inspire a future generation of robot users and engineers.
Technology companies worldwide are beginning to partner with
schools, colleges and universities to encourage and cultivate future talent. In the robotics field, robot manufacturers including ourselves are playing an active role in providing the frameworks for teaching young people the skills needed for modern manufacturing as businesses increasingly look to make the switch to robots. As manufacturing has changed with automation, so too have the skillsets needed to make the most of the opportunities it offers. Today, automation encompasses a wide range of areas, offering opportunities for people to learn new skills in everything from product design through to production and distribution. For the next generation of workers, the ability to use robotic automation, whether it be working alongside robots, programming them or maintaining them, will be a key part of shaping their future careers. Integrating robots into learning processes helps to futureproof not only students but their potential employers too. With skills shortages currently cited as a major obstacle to growth, being able to count on a potential stream of technology-savvy future employees could encourage companies to invest in modern production technologies that can make a real difference both to their own productivity and competitiveness and that of the UK. We’re playing our role in equipping the employees of tomorrow with the skills they need to get the most out of robotic automation. At ABB, our robotic education courses and packages, for example, have been designed to demonstrate real-life programming concepts in the classroom. Our robotic education package enables universities, schools and colleges to purchase complete robot packages at affordable costs, enabling them to provide students with hands-on experience of programming and the skills they need to run modern manufacturing systems. We also offer a range of virtual classroom training courses, open to both students and those already working in industry; the courses provide everything necessary to turn robot novices into experienced operators.
Nigel Platt, LBL Manager, UK and Ireland, ABB Robotics
automationmagazine.co.uk
Automation | October 2021
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