Cited by 894Computational Drug Discovery MethodsArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationMachine Learning in Materials Science

Rethinking drug design in the artificial intelligence era

Schneider, Petra, Walters, W. Patrick, Plowright, Alleyn T., Sieroka, Norman, Listgarten, Jennifer, Goodnow, Robert A., Fisher, Jasmin, Jansen, Johanna M. +10 more·2020·Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly being applied in drug discovery. While some protagonists point to vast opportunities potentially offered by such tools, others remain sceptical, waiting for a clear impact to be shown in drug discovery projects. The reality is probably somewhere in-between these extremes, yet it is clear that AI is providing new challenges not only for the scientists involved but also for the biopharma industry and its established processes for discovering and developing new medicines. This article presents the views of a diverse group of international experts on the 'grand challenges' in small-molecule drug discovery with AI and the approaches to address them.

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  • The impact of big data and AI in drug discovery continues to attract significant interest from investors, industrial and academic scientists, and legislators.

    “The impact of big data and AI in drug discovery, the subject of a 2020 review in this journal (4), continues to attract significant interest: Investors (5, 6), industrial (7, 8) and academic scientists (9, 10), and legislators (https://bit.ly/40LRAip) discuss the impact of AI for drug discovery (AI4DD).”
  • Adoption of AI/ML methods in this field has been relatively slow and often received with skepticism, compared to other industrial applications.

    “Arguably, though, adoption of AI/ML methods in this field has been relatively slow and often received with skepticism, compared to other industrial applications.271”

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Authors
Schneider, P., Walters, W. P., Plowright, A. T., Sieroka, N., Listgarten, J., Goodnow, R. A., Fisher, J., Jansen, J. M., Duca, J. S., Rush, T. S., Zentgraf, M., Hill, J. E., Krutoholow, E., Kohler, M., Blaney, J., Funatsu, K., Luebkemann, C., & Schneider, G.
Affiliations
  • ETH Zurich (CH)
  • Relay Therapeutics (United States) (US)
  • Sanofi (Germany) (DE)
  • University of Bremen (DE)
  • University of California, Berkeley (US)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany) (DE)
  • Genentech (US)
  • The University of Tokyo (JP)
Venue
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
Published
2019-12-04
Volume
19
Issue
5
Pages
353-364
ISSN
  • 1474-1776 (ISSN-L)
  • 1474-1784
OpenAlex
W2992586577
Cited by
894
References
186
Citations by year
2026: 156 · 2025: 160 · 2024: 156 · 2023: 138 · 2022: 103 · 2021: 120 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 1
FWCI
5.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • The Novartis Repository (Novartis) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Machine Learning in Materials Science
Keywords
artificial intelligence, drug discovery, small-molecule drug design, societal challenges, biopharmaceutical industry, drug development
MeSH terms
Artificial Intelligence, Humans, Drug Design, Drug Discovery

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