AI takes its best shot: What AI can—and can't—do in the race for a coronavirus vaccine - [Vaccine]

IN AN ACHIEVEMENT that would have startled biomedical researchers merely a year ago, vaccines against COVID-19 were already being tested in humans this past March, less than three months after the initial outbreak was identified in China. Many of those vaccines owed their speedy start to the power of artificial intelligence (AI). The feat is a promising and remarkable turn in the 200-year-plus history of immunization. The experience may revolutionize the way vaccines are created, potentially saving countless lives in epidemics yet to come. As of early September, there were 34 vaccine candidates being tested in humans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Another 145 candidates were being tested in animals or in the lab, says WHO, which keeps a running worldwide list. Those are astonishing numbers, considering that less than a year ago no one had heard of the novel coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19. It typically takes many years, or even decades, to develop a vaccine; until now, the speed record was held by the mumps vaccine, which went from a collected sample to a marketed product in about four years.