AI may speed up search for drugs to treat brain conditions

Scientists are using AI to accelerate the search for treatments for neurological conditions that may be hiding in plain sight.

Researchers at the UK Dementia Research Institute in Edinburgh analyse patient data including voice recordings and eye scans, as well as lab-grown brain cells, to identify whether existing drugs could be repurposed to treat conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND).

The scientists hope that by using algorithms to detect patterns of disease and predict suitable medicines, effective treatments could be found in "years rather than decades".

That hope is shared by trial participant Steven Barrett, who was diagnosed with MND 10 years ago.

Steven had been planning his active retirement after a long and decorated career in the civil service, when he began to notice a numbness in his leg.

A few years later he was diagnosed with MND - a degenerative neurological condition which does not yet have a cure.

"MND is a horrible disease, it strips you of who you are," he tells the BBC at his home in Alloa, Scotland.

"It rips any sense of future that you may feel that you had planned for yourself - all that goes."