{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2023-12-20-ai-new-antibiotic-structural-class/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2023-12-20-ai-new-antibiotic-structural-class/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2023-12-20-ai-new-antibiotic-structural-class","date":"2023-12-20","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Explainable deep learning discovers a new structural class of antibiotics against MRSA","deck":null,"takeaway":"Felix Wong, James Collins and colleagues (Nature, Dec 2023) screened ~39,000 compounds, trained graph neural networks, and used explainable substructure analysis on ~12M compounds.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Discovery of a structural class of antibiotics with explainable deep learning (Nature)","url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06887-8","type":"paper","group":"primary","domain":"nature.com"},{"n":2,"title":"Broad Institute: Researchers use AI to identify new class of antibiotic candidates","url":"https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/researchers-use-ai-identify-new-class-antibiotic-candidates","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"broadinstitute.org"}],"official":1,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["MIT","Broad Institute"],"title":"Explainable deep learning discovers a new structural class of antibiotics against MRSA","summary":"Felix Wong, James Collins and colleagues (Nature, Dec 2023) screened ~39,000 compounds, trained graph neural networks, and used explainable substructure analysis on ~12M compounds. They found a new structural class of antibiotics active against MRSA and VRE that worked in mouse models.","key_facts":["Nature, published online 20 Dec 2023","~39,000 compounds tested experimentally; ~12M scored computationally","Active against MRSA and vancomycin-resistant enterococci; effective topically and systemically in mice"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["biology","antibiotics","explainable-ai","drug-discovery"],"science":{"field":"medicine","subfield":"antibiotic discovery","problem":"New antibiotic classes against MRSA","result":"First new structural class of antibiotics found via explainable deep learning, validated in mouse infection models.","open_since":"","ai_system":["graph neural networks with Monte Carlo tree search rationale extraction"],"human_role":"Human-led with AI tools","verification":{"key":"peer-review","label":"Peer-reviewed","text":"Peer-reviewed in Nature; lab-validated in mice"},"status":"confirmed","shock":""},"body_md":"## What happened\n\nRather than a black-box ranking, the model identified which chemical substructures drove predicted activity, leading chemists to a new antibiotic class.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nNew structural classes of antibiotics are rarely discovered. This one came from interpretable AI, which also showed chemists why the molecules work.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2020-02-20-halicin-ai-antibiotic","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2020-02-20-halicin-ai-antibiotic/","date":"2020-02-20","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Deep learning discovers halicin, a structurally new broad-spectrum antibiotic","deck":null,"takeaway":"It launched the modern field of AI antibiotic discovery at a time of stalled antibiotic pipelines.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["MIT","Broad Institute"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-09-29","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":null}