Predicting the Toxicity of Chemical Compounds via Hyperdimensional Computing

Accurately and efficiently assessing the potential toxicity of chemical compounds is critical given their wide application across pharmaceutical, industrial, and environmental domains. Traditional toxicological evaluations, which predominantly rely on intensive in vitro and in vivo assays, are frequently slow and expensive. Here, we introduce a novel application of hyperdimensional computing (HDC), a recently developed computational paradigm inspired by the way the human brain works in encoding information, for the efficient classification of chemical compounds as either toxic or nontoxic. Our methodology employs Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) representations of compounds, drawing data from the comprehensive Tox21 dataset. We delineate a pipeline wherein these chemical structures are encoded into high-dimensional binary vectors, which subsequently serve as the foundation for training and classification within the HDC framework. This approach leverages HDC's inherent advantages, including its resilience to noise, parallel processing capabilities, and efficacy in identifying intricate patterns. This work demonstrates the viability of HDC as a computationally lightweight first-pass solution for preliminary toxicity screening. This research significantly contributes to the field of cheminformatics by validating HDC's potential in chemical property prediction, thereby facilitating accelerated identification of hazardous substances and mitigating the reliance on intensive laboratory experimentation.