‘AI scientist’ suggests combinations of widely available non-cancer drugs can kill cancer cells
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Jul-2025 06:11 ET (9-Jul-2025 10:11 GMT/UTC)
An ‘AI scientist’, working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs – used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence – could also be effective at treating cancer, a promising new approach to drug discovery.
Aneuploidy—the presence of an incorrect number of chromosomes—is common during the normal development of human embryos and is the main cause of spontaneous miscarriage.
A team of researchers at IRB Barcelona has developed a genetic tool to create customized aneuploidies and analyse their impact during development.
Published in Cell Genomics, the study demonstrates that aneuploid cells are actively eliminated by neighbouring cells through cell competition.
These mechanisms may be involved in the removal of aneuploid cells during early human development.
The study – conducted using a combination of machine learning and metagenomics, and published in Nature Medicine – could make non-invasive screening methods more accurate in the future