Artificial Intelligence (AI), deep learning, and machine learning are helping medical experts find a cure for COVID-19.
Medical experts around the globe are racing against the clock to find a vaccine, or at least a combination of drugs that can curb the spread of COVID-10. Since this is a daunting and tedious job, experts are using AI to help them sort through thousands of available drugs.
Currently, experts are focusing on two particular fields. One field uses AI to comb through thousands of already approved drugs that can alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19. The second field uses AI to model how the virus works and replicates, and create a new drug that can terminate it.
One drug out of a thousand
Creating a new drug takes years. It needs to undergo various stages of clinical trials in order to prove its efficacy. What some medical experts are doing is sorting through drugs that are already available in the market and test their effectiveness against COVID-19.
Since testing these drugs in human subjects are unethical, experts are running simulations and various modelling tools using AI. They test the efficacy of these drugs through AI simulations.
By using this technique, experts are able to rapidly identify approved drugs that might help cure COVID-19. However, viruses are composed of billions of complicated molecules and even the most powerful AI will take some time to run all simulations and produce a verifiable result.
Nevertheless, experts are still hopeful that they will find at least one drug out of thousands that will finally defeat the virus.
Directly targeting the virus
Another way of finding cure for the COVID-19 virus is directly targeting its molecular structure. Medical experts are studying how the virus infects and replicates. The result of these studies will give them the idea of how to combat it.
Through this strategy, AI helps in creating a model of the virus and run simulations of it. By using deep learning and machine learning tools, the AI could effectively come up with a strategy on how to effectively deal with the virus.
Experts are also hoping that one of these simulations can eventually find the weakness of the virus. Once this weakness is detected, they can formulate a drug that can kill the virus. Using this data, they can also create a drug that will render humans immune to this virus.
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