IBM building first ever AI-based automated Chemistry research lab

 All of us are eagerly waiting for a suitable vaccine for Covid-19 and sometimes this delay also causes frustration. Microbiology, biochemistry, and chemistry are the complex fields of research that require plenty of time for synthesis, detection, and discovery of substances.

The fundamental reason for this time consumption is the dependence on classical trial-and-error methodology. In the same concern, the multinational giant IBM is set to automate the research by its AI-based lab RoboRXN. 

Chemistry is playing a great role in even modern consumer products, technology, and the medical domain. It is well known that the discovery and synthesis of a molecule and its commercialization is a very long process. The research of Nylon began in 1927 and it was first used commercially in 1938.

 

Human + Machine

IBM in its research blog described that a group of scientists at IBM Research Europe is working on state-of-the-art neural machine learning translation methods using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud technology, and robotics. They are using SMILES representation to describe chemical entities and it translates the chemical reaction to be analyzed and operated by robotics. The group has also collaborated with the synthetic organic chemists at the University of Pisa, Italy in 2019.

The technology will prove to be a groundbreaking advancement in synthetic chemistry, no doubt. If a reliable automated infrastructure like RoboRXN is created it will cut the time period of discovery of treatments and synthesis of substances, in almost half.

Source- https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/08/roborxn-automating-chemical-synthesis/