Drug Discovery as a Recommendation Problem: Challenges and Complexities in Biological Decisions
Anna A. Gogleva, Eliseo Papa, Erik Jansson, Greet De Baets · 2021
Drug discovery is notorious for its low success rates [5]. Despite best research efforts, the majority of drugs fail at early stages of development, even before they enter clinical trials. This phenomenon stems from the inherent complexity of biological systems and our poor understanding of human diseases. To improve that understanding, swaths of data have been generated in recent years. Still, data does not easily translate into knowledge or actionable insights. Here we explore how approaches from the recommendation system domain could help scientists comprehend the ever-growing amount of biomedical facts. The aim of these efforts is to make better drug development decisions, which ultimately result in safe and efficient treatments for patients [3].