Under the supervision of the Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Associate Professor Dr. Sarmed H. Kathem Alkhateeb, the Scientific Affairs Unit at the University of Baghdad/College of Pharmacy, held an in-person panel discussion entitled “Role of AI and Bioinformatics in Drug Discovery and Development”, delivered by Lecturer Mohammed Ali Ezghayer, a PhD candidate at the Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants Department.
The workshop aimed to highlight the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and bioinformatics in advancing the discovery of natural pharmaceutical products, accelerating the transition from microbial genomics analysis to the identification of promising therapeutic compounds, and addressing the traditional challenges facing natural drug discovery.
The workshop included several topics, including defining the challenges of discovering natural pharmaceutical products, particularly the rediscovery of known compounds from complex mixtures and the difficulties of traditional isolation and purification processes. Also, it addressed the mechanisms for employing AI in genomic mining and metabolomics analysis, and reviewed key bioinformatics tools and software, such as AntiSMASH, GNPS, SIRIUS, and CANOPUS. Furthermore, the workshop highlighted the role of AI techniques in analyzing LC-MS/MS data and predicting chemical structure, biological activity, and pharmacological properties, thereby contributing to improved drug isolation and filtration processes, accelerating natural drug discovery, and enhancing the efficiency of scientific research.
The workshop concluded that the integration of bioinformatics and AI represents the future of natural drug discovery, as it reduces time, effort, and cost, while increasing opportunities to access new compounds with high therapeutic efficacy. Also, it emphasized the importance of linking computer predictions with experimental verification.
