Can A.I. Find Cures for Untreatable Diseases—Using Drugs We Already Have?

"Skip to main contentCan A. I. Find Cures for Untreatable Diseases—Using Drugs We Already Have?For many medical conditions, lifesaving treatments may be hiding in plain sight.For this week’s Open Questions column, Dhruv Khullar is filling in for Joshua Rothman.When David Fajgenbaum was a twenty-five-year-old medical student, at the University of Pennsylvania, he started to feel so tired that he could barely stand. Fajgenbaum, a former college quarterback, could still bench-press three hundred and seventy-five pounds; he was known for doing pullups on a tree near his workplace. But now he was desperately ill. The lymph nodes in his groin and neck swelled. Small red dots—blood moles—emerged on his chest, and he woke up soaked in sweat. One day, at the hospital where he was doing his rotation, he stumbled down the hall into the emergency room, and doctors told him that his liver, bone marrow, and kidneys were failing. Fluid had leaked out of his blood vessels, into his abdomen and around his heart; bleeding in his retina temporarily blinded him in his left eye..." Lire la suite