AI accelerates screening for new TB drug candidates

Drug Enforcement Tech

Posted by AI on 2025-06-04 18:37:01 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-06-26 16:25:14

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Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes TB, a serious global health threat that infected more than 10 million people in 2022. The rise of drug-resistant strains has increased the urgency for new treatments. A new study published in PNAS describes the novel use of artificial intelligence to screen for antimicrobial compound candidates that could be developed into new TB drug treatments. The study was led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, Linnaeus Bioscience Inc., and the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research at Seattle Children's Research Institute.

Linnaeus Bioscience is a San Diego-based biotechnology company that developed technology to rapidly determine how antibiotics function. The new system has already accelerated the team's TB research capabilities and helped identify optimal candidate compounds for drug development. "This technology expands and accelerates our ability to do this and allows us to prioritize which molecules to work on based on their mode of action," said Tanya Parish, a co-author of the study. Linnaeus Bioscience was launched in 2012 with a technology that showed how bacterial cells look after treatment with antibiotics. The company now receives samples from around the world to send for rapid analysis and identification of new bacterial drug candidates.

The study lead authors were Diana Quach and Joseph Sugie, both of whom received their PhDs in Bioengineering from the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and completed postdoctoral appointments in the Pogliano labs in the Department of Molecular Biology. Co-authors also include Marc Sharp, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Ames, Amala Bhagwat, Aditi Deshpande, and Joe Pogliano. The study was funded by the Gates Foundation.

Conclusion: By integrating artificial intelligence and bacterial cytological profiling, this novel approach could help advance the search for new tuberculosis drug candidates, contributing to our ongoing efforts to combat drug-resistant strains and improve global health outcomes.

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