Artificial intelligence could help discover a cure for Ebola

A Canadian research team, hunting for new Ebola treatments has developed a cutting edge artificial intelligence, capable of predicting the effect of new drugs 150 times faster than current methods. Supported by the University of Toronto, Chematria has managed to reprogram the country’s fastest supercomputer, a 32,767-core IBM BlueGene/Q, with an algorith that simulates and analyses millions of potential medicines to predict their effectiveness against Ebola, Mashable reported.

With nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola, and more than 13,000 infected worldwide, scientists are racing to find a vaccine to combat the disease. Now, a team of Canadian researchers are hunting for new Ebola treatments, using “groundbreaking” artificial-intelligence technology that they claim can predict the effectiveness of new medicines 150 times faster than current methods. Chematria, a startup supported by the University of Toronto, programmed Canada’s fastest supercomputer with an algorithm that simulates and analyzes “millions of potential medicines” to predict their effectiveness against Ebola, according to researchers. They claim the process will only take a few weeks, and won’t require costly physical testing in labs.