In any area of disease research, a deep understanding of recent and future trends surrounding a particular condition is crucial to the drug discovery process. But with the volume of scientific literature increasing all the time, it is difficult to manually sift through all the existing information and correlate data in such a way to produce meaningful direction. This predicament can lead to the misallocation of resources on research in areas that are less likely to yield promising treatments.
By analyzing all literature related to a specific condition or disease, researchers can better identify which areas will likely lead to a breakthrough. Natural language processing (NLP) uses a combination of linguistics, artificial intelligence, and computer science to understand text in the same way as people. Researchers can use NLP in trend analysis to determine the rate at whic…