From machine learning to deep learning: progress in machine intelligence for rational drug discovery.

Journal: Drug discovery today
Published Date:

Abstract

Machine intelligence, which is normally presented as artificial intelligence, refers to the intelligence exhibited by computers. In the history of rational drug discovery, various machine intelligence approaches have been applied to guide traditional experiments, which are expensive and time-consuming. Over the past several decades, machine-learning tools, such as quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling, were developed that can identify potential biological active molecules from millions of candidate compounds quickly and cheaply. However, when drug discovery moved into the era of 'big' data, machine learning approaches evolved into deep learning approaches, which are a more powerful and efficient way to deal with the massive amounts of data generated from modern drug discovery approaches. Here, we summarize the history of machine learning and provide insight into recently developed deep learning approaches and their applications in rational drug discovery. We suggest that this evolution of machine intelligence now provides a guide for early-stage drug design and discovery in the current big data era.

Authors

  • Lu Zhang
    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States.
  • Jianjun Tan
    College of Life Science and Bio-engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China. Electronic address: tanjianjun@bjut.edu.cn.
  • Dan Han
    College of Life Science and Bio-engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China.
  • Hao Zhu
    State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology Wuhan 430070 PR China chang@whut.edu.cn suntl@whut.edu.cn.