AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Air Evacuation under High-Level Biosafety Containment: The Aeromedical Isolation Team

Military contingency operations in tropical environments and potential use of biological weapons by adversaries may place troops at risk for potentially lethal contagious infections (e.g., viral hemorrhagic fevers, plague, and zoonotic poxvirus infections). Diagnosis and treatment of such infections would be expedited by evacuating a limited number of patients to a facility with containment laboratories. To safely evacuate such patients by military aircraft and minimize the risk for transmission to air crews, caregivers, and civilians, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases maintains an aeromedical isolation team. This rapid response team, which has worldwide airlift capability designed to evacuate and manage patients under high-level containment, also offers a portable containment laboratory, limited environmental decontamination, and specialized consultative expertise. This article also examines technical aspects of the team's equipment, training, capabilities, and deployments