Medicine for COVID-19 created by young Belarusian scientists
12:51, 18 February
How many years does it take to create a new drug? A decade, maybe several. Belarusian researchers know how to speed up this process. Using the latest technology, they “design” medicines for coronavirus, cancer and HIV. A young scientist of the Joint Institute for Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics of the Belarusian State University, board member of the Belarusian Union of Women of the National Academy of Sciences Anna Karpenko has achieved success in this area, Belarus' Segodnya reports.
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— Anna, what methods will form the basis of the COVID-19 medicine that you are developing with a team of young scientists?
— We have everything to create it: both competencies and opportunities. In cooperation with a team of young scientists, we participated in an international competition by Merc. Belarusians entered the top 20. All the developments of the teams of the finalists formed the basis of the drug against COVID-19.
— Tell us how the medicine is being created, including for the coronavirus?
— The work begins with the definition of a biological target. Any disease of the body starts with a violation of the function of a protein. To stop the destructive process, we need to act on this protein. To weaken its functions, it is worth hitting those targets that are responsible for the acute form of the disease.
— Is it interesting to hit biological targets?
— Yes, especially if you understand that the well-being of mankind depends on this process.
It is necessary to study which target to choose, for what function it is responsible. But we, in addition, can, based on the available data, create those connections ourselves that will be potentially better.
— It turns out that the medicine is created using a computer?
— Almost all calculations are carried out in the supercomputer center of the Joint Institute for Informatics Problems. The work is divided into two parts: classical modeling, when we predict processes using a supercomputer, calculate how they are connected, how they behave in time, the second part is using artificial intelligence, which is involved in the process of generating these connections.
— How does this process take place?
— By analogy with the creation of a lock and a key to it. In a computer program, we build the so-called keyhole. The key to it should be the connection that we find or model.
After the keyhole is ready, gradually, from the public databases of all connections, we begin to select possible keys to it. The point is to choose among the multibillion-dollar connections exactly those that will be active and more accurate, while reducing this sample.
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