Preparing for future coronavirus variants using artificial intelligence
Researchers around Sai Reddy, head of the Synthetic Immunology group, have developed a method to explore the possibilities of how the pandemic virus could evolve. Thanks to their work, it may be possible to develop antibody therapies and vaccines that are more likely to be effective also against future viral variants.
SARS-CoV-2 is constantly mutating and each new variant often catches the world by surprise. Take for example the highly mutated Omicron variant that emerged last November and required health authorities to develop a rapid response strategy even though, initially there were no answers to important questions: How protected are vaccinated and previously infected people against the new variant? And are antibody therapies still effective against this new version of the virus?
Researchers led by Professor Sai Reddy from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel have now developed a way of using artificial intelligence to answer such questions, potentially even in real-time immediately after a new variant emerges.
Find ETH news article at full length.
Find original artible published by Cell:
Taft JM, Weber CR, Gao B, Ehling RA, Han J, Frei L, Metcalfe SW, Overath M, Yermanos A, Kelton W, Reddy ST (2022) external pageDeep mutational learning predicts ACE2 binding and antibody escape to combinatorial mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain. Cell, 31 August 2022 (Journal Pre-Proof), doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.08.024
Learn about the Systems and Synthetic Immunology lab led by Sai Reddy.