In a recent article it has been found out by researchers at Washington State University that it is possible to find antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria with machine learning and game theory.
In the world of health and medicine one of, if not the biggest discovery is antibiotics. They were the most simple way of clearing out or slowing down the reproduction of bacteria in the human body. People a long time ago had been dying left and right to bacterial deseases and antibiotics helped the expectancy of everyone’s lives. However eventually after it started being used bacteria with DNA that has antibiotic resistance survived and reproduced. Eventually it could be problematic as there’s many ways to acquire resistances as said here. With certain bacteria that many people used to be infected with a lot and since people used antibiotics for it certain bacteria had vast resistances as there’s very limited antibiotics to kill one type of disease. If there was a strand of bacteria completely used to antibiotics it could wipe out the human race. If you want to learn more on that it could be found here
Although it isn’t too bad and we haven’t run into many bacteria that resist antibiotics, it can also be very dangerous if a person takes an antibiotic that the bacteria in their body is resistant to. The bacteria then wouldn’t die and thy would also expand and live on to reproduce and make the problem worse since it was technically not treated. However with what the people in Washington state university are doing computers would more and more be able to find the bacteria that have genes resistant to certain antibiotics. The AI would learn more and more what genes are likely to be ones that resist antibiotics and they will be able to apply that to other situations. This method used worldwide would really help people know what type of antibiotics to give sick people. If a strain of bacteria is treated with antibiotics that most of it is resistant to not only could the person die but the existing bacteria in that persons body could be extremely dangerous if it reproduces as said before. So knowing if that bacteria does indeed have a resistance could be pivotal in many peoples lives. This could also happen at new speeds since that is one of the biggest advantages of using AI.
Not only is this new method very fast it is also very efficient. The researches at Washington state had been able to determine this at an accuracy rate ranging from 93% -99%. These constant advancements in health and technology show how the implementation of tech into health has changed life as we know it and will continue to forever.
Leave a Reply