If NASA simulate physics (with programming) precisely enough to accurately calculate what will happen when they send a rocket into space, can biologists simulate the human body to discover what will happen when, for example, new medicine is introduced to it?

Question

I was thinking a reinforcement learning algorithm could be a trained in a simulated environment to find a cure for cancer, testing how every which complex process of a new medicine or even nanotechnology might react to its environment. Am I way off?

In: Biology

Answer 1

> can biologists simulate the human body

Forget about simulating the human body, we can’t even simulate MOLECULES properly, not even cells, tissues, organs, or even human. By properly, I mean, in a cost effective manner.

That’s why the current research is less about simulation, but trying to figure shortcuts with AI, so we can figure things out without doing the complete simulation:

https://deepmind.com/blog/article/alphafold-a-solution-to-a-50-year-old-grand-challenge-in-biology