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A comment on AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of all of life's molecules. Parent comment

Re:AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of al... by hammock on Wednesday May 08, 2024 @10:34PM (#40304726)
> if we had an ML that could generate molecules that cure diseases that would pass FDA approval, I wouldn't really care if scientists couldn't explain the underlying principles

It’s actually required as part of the submission for FDA approval that you posit a specific Mechanism of Action for why your drug works the way it does. You can’t get approval without it

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Re:AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of al... by jdietrich on Wednesday May 08, 2024 @11:31PM (#40305060)
A substantial proportion of FDA-approved drugs have an unknown mechanism of action - we can handwave about protein interactions, but we have no useful insight into how they actually work. Drug discovery is bureaucratically rigid, but scientifically haphazard.
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Re:AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of al... by dekhn on Thursday May 09, 2024 @11:18AM (#40309127)
How much do you believe that the MoA actually matches what is happening in the underlying reality of a disease and its treatment?

Vioxx is a nice example of a molecule that got all the way to large-scale deployment before being taken off the market for side effects that were known. Only a decade before that, I saw a very proud pharma scientist explaining their "mechanism of action" for vioxx, which was completely wrong.

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