AI Speeds Drug Discovery and Design: 3 Key Questions

MIT professor James J. Collins discusses how collaborations and AI are transforming antibiotic development

Published on Feb. 4, 2026

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James J. Collins, a leading researcher in synthetic biology and systems biology at MIT, discusses how his collaborations across institutions and the use of AI and deep learning have led to advances in designing novel antibiotics that can battle multi-drug-resistant pathogens. Collins co-founded the nonprofit Phare Bio to help bridge the gap between discovery and development of these promising antibiotic candidates.

Why it matters

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health threat, making it critical to develop new classes of antibiotics that can effectively treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Collins' work using AI and deep learning to design novel antibiotics, combined with his collaborative approach across institutions, represents a promising strategy to accelerate the discovery and development of much-needed new antimicrobial therapies.

The details

Collins' research has leveraged collaborations with experts in AI, network biology, and systems microbiology to discover new antibiotics like halicin, which is effective against a broad range of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. He has also worked with researchers at the Wyss Institute to test the efficacy of AI-discovered and AI-generated antibiotics using organs-on-chips technology. Looking ahead, Collins' lab is using generative AI to design antibiotics with drug-like properties that are strong candidates for clinical development. The goal is to integrate AI with high-throughput biological testing to accelerate the discovery and design of novel, safe, and effective antibiotics.

  • In 2025, Collins' lab published a study in Cell demonstrating how generative AI can be used to design new antibiotics from scratch.
  • Recently, Phare Bio, the nonprofit co-founded by Collins, received a grant from ARPA-H to use generative AI to design 15 new antibiotics and develop them as pre-clinical candidates.

The players

James J. Collins

The Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science and professor of biological engineering at MIT, a core faculty member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), the director of the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, an institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and core founding faculty at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard.

Regina Barzilay

The Delta Electronics Professor in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and affiliate faculty member at IMES.

Tommi Jaakkola

The Thomas Siebel Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT.

Donald Ingber

The Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

Akhila Kosaraju

The leader of Phare Bio, a nonprofit co-founded by Collins to advance promising antibiotic candidates toward the clinic.

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What they’re saying

“Collaboration has been central to the work in my lab.”

— James J. Collins, Professor (Mirage News)

“By integrating AI with high-throughput biological testing, we aim to accelerate the discovery and design of antibiotics that are novel, safe, and effective, ready for real-world therapeutic use.”

— James J. Collins, Professor (Mirage News)

“The idea is to bridge the gap between discovery and development by collaborating with biotech companies, pharmaceutical partners, AI companies, philanthropies, other nonprofits, and even nation states.”

— James J. Collins, Professor (Mirage News)

What’s next

Recently, Phare Bio received a grant from ARPA-H to use generative AI to design 15 new antibiotics and develop them as pre-clinical candidates.

The takeaway

Collins' work demonstrates how the integration of AI, deep learning, and collaborative research across institutions can accelerate the discovery and development of novel antibiotics to address the growing threat of drug-resistant bacterial infections, a critical global health challenge.