Drug discovery, Netflix style?
In the last 10 years, the growth of the Internet has made ranking algorithms one of the hottest topics in computer science. The most famous ranking algorithm is Google’s, which determines the order of search results, but close behind are the Netflix and Amazon algorithms that make recommendations on the basis of customers’ prior decisions. Now researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have shown that ranking algorithms could find an important application in a somewhat surprising field: drug development.Drug development typically begins with the identification of a “target” — a molecule involved in the biological processes underlying some disease. The next step is to try to find chemicals that either promote or suppress the molecule’s production. Scientists have assembled huge libraries — both virtual and physical — of chemical compounds that might be active against biological targets, and drug developers who have identified a target usually select a group...