{"id":85160,"date":"2023-04-26T16:28:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T20:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=85160"},"modified":"2024-03-28T11:59:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:59:58","slug":"3mt-winner-to-bring-ai-drug-design-research-to-provincial-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2023\/04\/3mt-winner-to-bring-ai-drug-design-research-to-provincial-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"3MT winner to bring AI drug design research to provincial finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karl Grantham\u2019s calendar is marked for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) provincial finals next month after he beat the clock, won over the judges and came out on top at the Brock Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Finals<\/a> on April 17.<\/p>\n

Grantham triumphed over six other Brock finalists to earn a spot in the provincial finals<\/a> at\u00a0Queen\u2019s University on Wednesday, May 17. He will compete against students from across Ontario to keep the audience and judges engaged with complex research using just one slide and a three-minute presentation.<\/p>\n

At the finals, Grantham will present his Master of Science in Computer Science thesis \u201cAI Enabled Drug Design and Side Effect Prediction Powered by Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms and Transformer Models.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long-winded way of saying I\u2019m using artificial intelligence to help design new medications,\u201d Grantham explains. \u201cWith an aging population in Canada and many other parts of the world, adverse drug reactions are going to become more and more of a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grantham says side effects are a significant problem in health care because of adverse reactions caused by drugs released to market and the role side effects play in late-stage drug development failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy attempting to intercept these problems at earlier stages of drug design, the process of drug development can be made faster, cheaper and safer,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Filtering a master\u2019s thesis in three minutes and explaining it in accessible terms is not an easy task. Grantham found he had to be ruthless in editing his presentation so the audience could get a good idea of his work in the allotted time.<\/p>\n

By the May finals, Grantham says he hopes to have completed more of his experiments so he can present his work from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from that, it will be practise, practise, practise from now until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Faculty of Graduate Studies encourages the Brock and Niagara communities to watch a livestream of the finals<\/a>\u00a0starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 17.<\/p>\n

Winners of the Brock 3MT Finals include:<\/strong><\/p>\n