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In a move that could reshape drug discovery, researchers at Harvard Medical School have designed an artificial intelligence model capable of identifying treatments that reverse disease states in cells.

Unlike traditional approaches that typically test one protein target or drug at a time in hopes of identifying an effective treatment, the new model, called PDGrapher and available for free, focuses on multiple drivers of disease and identifies the genes most likely to revert diseased cells back to healthy function.

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The tool also identifies the best single or combined targets for treatments that correct the disease process. The work, described Sept. 9 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, was supported in part by federal funding.

By zeroing in on the targets most likely to reverse disease, the new approach could speed up drug discovery and design and unlock therapies for conditions that have long eluded traditional methods, the researchers noted.