Ask HN: Is AI going to cure the common cold?

2•phtrivier•2mo ago

I know that it's tongue in cheek to ask when AI is going to "cure cancer and solve climate change", but, is there a company / university / lab working on using AI (or mRNA, or CRIPSR, or whatever) to solve the more mundane and yet incredibly frustrating "small diseases" (like the common cold that we'll all get twice a year no matter how much vitamin C we consume ?)

Where is the "breakthrough" research done on topics that no one talk about ?

Comments

PaulHoule•2mo ago

Would be nice to have an accelerated development system for mRNA drugs. The military would certainly like to produce a vaccine against a new bioweapon as fast as possible. Could an AI help generate sequences, sure, but there will always be some need for manufacturing and testing.

gus_massa•2mo ago

Probably not cost effective. I expect first to get annual mRNA vaccines for risk groups for flu and coronavirus (the infamous one, and there are like 5 other going around that are dangerous too).

I'm more interested in mRNA vaccine for local illness, that are very dangerous but localized in tiny areas.

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