Ensuring antibiotic effectiveness with big data
Experts who are adept at handling massive scientific data sets are examining ways that the revolution sweeping their field can address one of medicine’s biggest challenges: the spread of drug-resistant microbes. Maha Farhat, assistant professor of biomedical informatics and one of the organizers of a symposium on the topic, said antibiotic resistance has reached “epidemic proportions” but, with more data available than ever, there’s hope that medical science will discover ways to combat it. What’s needed, however, are better tools to analyze that data, she said. Related Big data, massive potential Across Harvard, programs and researchers are mining vast quantities of computerized information, sometimes revolutionizing their fields in the process Heading off the post-antibiotic age Symposium explores the science and business of limiting resistance to drugs “It really threatens one of the most core therapies that define modern medicine,” Farhat said. “We do think the problem of antibiotic resistance is at...