Applications of machine learning in microbial natural product drug discovery

INTRODUCTION: Natural products (NPs) are a desirable source of new therapeutics due to their structural diversity and evolutionarily optimized bioactivities. NPs and their derivatives account for roughly 70% of approved pharmaceuticals. However, the rate at which novel NPs are discovered has decreased. To accelerate the microbial NP discovery process, machine learning (ML) is being applied to numerous areas of NP discovery and development.