New proteins, better batteries: Scientists are using AI to speed up discoveries

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/12/ [login to see] /artificial-intelligence-ai-scientific-discoveries-proteins-drugs-solar
Susana Vazquez-Torres is a fourth-year graduate student at the University of Washington who wants to someday invent new drugs for neglected diseases.

Lately, she's been thinking a lot about snake bites: Around a hundred thousand people die each year from snake bites, according to the World Health Organization — and yet, she says, "the current therapeutics are not safe and are very expensive."

Part of the problem is that developing new drugs for things like snake bites has been a slow and laborious process. In the past, Torres says, it might have taken years to come up with a promising compound.