Computational chemists have long desired to correlate protein-ligand complex structures with their binding affinity, especially for designing drugs to combat devastating diseases. Accurately predicting on a computer the behavior of molecules has proven challenging but huge progress is being made especially with new computing power and the development of stronger AI capabilities.. Springer's recently published Exscalate4CoV: High-Performance Computing for COVID Drug Discovery  opens a window on what can be, and has been done with these new tools right in the middle of the worst pandemic living humans have seen. The book would have not been possible without the support, encouragement, and feedback of so many team members, authors, and collaborators of the EXSCALATE4COV (coordinated by Dompé farmaceutici) and LIGATE projects who worked to complete their tasks.

Edited by Silvano Colletti and Gabriella Bernardi, the book aims, for the first time, to gather available evidence on researches and use cases of artificial intelligence techniques and HPC resources aiming to accelerate the drug discovery and development process.  It aims to indicate avenues for future research and policy actions that could impact precision medicine. Eminent international experts have been invited to contribute to this work, thus representing the state of the art in this field.

As the recognition and consideration of AI in drug development is increasing in significance and applications at all levels, the need has arisen for a reference text that can be used across disciplines to guide research and practice based on a precision medicine paradigm. This book is meant for drug hunters, AI and HPC experts, students, policymakers, academic researchers, and other stakeholders to encourage and promote a precision medicine approach in basic research and clinical practice, as well as novel policy actions. 

A big thank you goes out to the contributing authors for their enthusiasm in joining the project and their dedication to the chapters. 

Last but not least, a special thanks to the Nobel Laureate Dr. Arieh Warshel from University of Southern California and Dr. Thomas Skordas, deputy director-general  of Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology from the European Commission, for their input which uniquely values and frames the importance of the work done by the science and technology teams.