How a London Based AI Company is Helping in the Fight against COVID-19
BenevolentAI is an artificial intelligence start-up out of London. In January, when coronavirus was beginning to circulate its way around the globe, the startup turned their attention to the virus. The company is comprised of researchers and data scientists who are working to understand the spread of the coronavirus, how to treat people who contract the virus and what it will take to develop a vaccine.
In late January, Joanna Shields, CEO at BenevolentAI asked the company’s vice president of pharmacology Peter Richardson if the company can explore potential treatments of the virus responsible for the global pandemic. So the search began.
Artificial intelligence is playing an important role in the fight against COVID-19. AI is being used to investigate important scientific and medical articles to help answer important questions about the coronavirus. In just two days, BenevolentAI used a version of this technology that they built to identify a possible treatment.
The drug that was identified is called Baricitinib. The intended purpose of the drug is to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Not surprisingly there is concern over the drug’s use as a potential treatment for COVID-19, but the National Institutes of Health will begin testing the drug in an accelerated clinical trial. The drug is also being testing in Italy, Canada and several other countries.
Before coronavirus made its way around the world, the A.I. company was focusing their efforts on autonomous vehicles and self-learning machines. Now, they’re shifting their focus and using A.I. to try and help understand COVID-19.
Baricitinib is a pill taken once daily that can help fight extreme activity from the body’s immune system. The body’s immune system can be attacked by rheumatoid arthritis, which is what the drug is used to treat. An immune system’s healthy cells and tissues can also be attacked by viruses like H.I.V. For years, researchers have explored Baricitinib and similar medications as an option to treat viruses.
Over the last several years, BenevolentAI has been building a technology with the intention of helping develop new drugs. This technology is now also being used to detect and identify potentially important information from scientific documents and medical papers in efforts to help create a way to treat COVID-19.
In a two day span, a team at BenevolentAI used their tool to scour through millions of scientific documents. Relying on Universal Language Models, the tool can teach itself to understand written and spoken language by analyzing digital text.
Universal Language Models are used to improve other every day technologies that we already use including search engines and chatbots.
Using the technology the company developed Dr. Richardson, who is a trained pharmacologist, was able to view a detailed database of particular biological processes related to the coronavirus that the tool pulled so that he can study and understand what it meant.
“It is not like we have this giant button and we just smack it and stuff comes out the other end,” said Olly Oechsle, a software engineer at BenevolentAI who oversees the development of these tools. “Peter has been working in this area since before I was born.”
While studying the information that was pulled from the literature the tool studied, Dr. Richardson was able to notice connections between specific human genes and the biological processes that are affected by the coronavirus. While combing through the data, two genes stuck out to him.
“They stood up and said: ‘Look, we’re here,’” Dr. Richardson said. Once Dr. Richardson identified these genes, he and his colleagues were able to pinpoint the way existing medications targeted these genes. Through this research they identified Baricitinib.
A cytokine storm is an extreme response from the body’s immune system that can potentially kill coronavirus patients, and because of this scientists have suggested anti-inflammatory drugs to help reduce it. However, researchers at BenevolentAI have taken it a step further. In researching the information found, they surmised that Baricitinib may have the ability to prevent the viral infection itself by blocking the way it enters cells.
In early February with the help of Justin Stebbing, a professor of oncology at Imperial College London, the researchers were able to send their findings to The Lancet, one of Britain’s most respected medical journals. The team at BenevolentAI wanted to share their findings to the largest possible audience they could.
The next day, Dr. Vincent Marconi and other colleagues at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta opened an email that directed them to the report from BenevolentAI. The email came from fellow Emory University Hospital colleague Dr. Raymond Schinazi. The doctors at Emory had been researching Baricitinib and other drugs as a possible treatment for H.I.V., and were aware of the possibility that it could potentially help coronavirus patients. They had not settled on the rheumatoid arthritis drug as a viable option or identified the specifics of why the drug could possibly help fight the virus.
The doctors at Emory University Hospital were shocked to learn the paper had actually been published by an artificial intelligence company. A month after reading the paper, Dr. Marconi proposed a clinical trial with Baricitinib and another drug. As coronavirus cases at the hospital rose, the drug was used to patients with encouraging results.
Meanwhile in Milan, Dr. Mario Corbellino had also begun administering the drug as a compassionate measure after his review of the paper from BenevolentAI. Dr. Corbellino said he felt comfortable testing a drug of this type if the potential to reduce immune system response and to prevent the viral infection altogether was there.
Although the research is promising, Dr. Dan Skovronsky, chief scientist officer at Eli Lilly, warns that the effect the drug would have on coronavirus patients is unclear. He states that even after clinical trials, it may not be entirely clear whether the antiviral properties identified by BenevolentAI will be as effective as they seem. “There is so much complexity to biology and there is so much information out there, it is hard — if not impossible — for one person to put together the clues that are already there in the literature,” he said. Eli Lilly is an American pharmaceutical company that makes Baricitinib.
Although it’s not clear whether Baricitinib can help in treating coronavirus patients, it’s incredibly impressive that in two days, thanks to the help of A.I., medical professionals can have a report to assist them in finding a potential treatment.
Story via The New York Times
