On September 19, 2022, Hu Houkun, the Rotating Chairman of Huawei, shared the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based scientific research and innovation by the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi 'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) at Huawei Connect 2022, which captivated worldwide attention.
Recently, Professor Liu Bing's team from our hospital has achieved groundbreaking results in the research and development of super-antimicrobial drug DrugX based on AI big-model technology. The team recently applied for a patent worldwide, and is currently performing preclinical research to support the application of Investigational New Drug (IND). DrugX, a super-antimicrobial drug, is expected to become the first antibiotics with new target and new category in recent 40 years around the globe. Its target characteristics prevent bacteria from developing drug resistance to DrugX, which will exert profound impact upon the research and development of antimalarial drugs (Plasmodium) and other fields.
At present, drug-resistant bacteria have become a major threat to human health. Since 2018, Professor Liu Bing's team has begun to carry out drug resistance research.
Professor Liu Bing from our hospital is delivering project discussion with the research team
Professor Liu Bing introduced Pangu drug molecule model jointly trained by Huawei Cloud and Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of Chinese Academy of Sciences. This cutting-edge AI technology can significantly speed up the screening process of drug molecules, shorten the research and development cycle of lead drugs from several years to approximately 1 month, and save the research and development cost by roughly 70%. On the one hand, AI significantly reduces the amount of manual screening calculation for small molecular compounds, thereby saving time and cost. On the other hand, AI can also directionally optimize the screened small molecular compounds and minimize potential toxic and side effects of new drugs through more scientific drug structural design.
Drug molecular screening through Huawei Cloud AI-assisted Drug Design Service Platform
Professor Liu Bing highlighted that "The combination and innovation of AI technology and basic science can not only resolve the pain points of high research and development cost and a long-time cycle, but also provide a platform for start-up research teams to display their capabilities". Application of AI technology enables more start-up teams to participate in the field of drug research and development and make concrete contributions to the innovation of pharmaceutical industry in China.
In recent years, Professor Liu Bing's team has been devoted to unravelling the mechanism of bacterial resistance, antimicrobial mechanism of bacteriophage and the research and development of antimicrobial drugs. Relevant findings have been published in internationally top-notch academic journals as the corresponding authors, such as PNAS, Cell Reports, Nucleic Acids Research and Cell Reports Methods, etc., which played a pivotal role in the research of pathogenic microorganisms and the construction of relevant disciplines of our hospital.
