AI virus tool helps make “future-proof” vaccines

Harvard Medical School and the University of Oxford recently developed a new artificial intelligence tool called EVEscape. It predicts virus transformations and gathers biological and structural information about a specific pathogen. The study published in Nature claims it could have helped combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most would expect an AI program to fight digital viruses or only perform computer tasks. However, modern artificial intelligence has powerful, real-world applications, such as this recent AI virus tool. Soon, it could become an important asset in preventing another global virus outbreak from transforming our world drastically.

This article will discuss how the EVEscape AI virus program works. Later, I will cover a similar artificial intelligence tool that creates antibodies instead of vaccines.

How does the AI virus tool work?

The Harvard Gazette said the AI virus program started from EVE, which means “evolutionary model of variant effect.” It deals with gene mutations that cause human diseases.

EVE’s core is a generative model that learns to predict how proteins work based on large-scale evolutionary data across species. It allowed researchers to differentiate between disease-causing and benign mutations that cause heart rhythm disorders and cancers.

However, the COVID-19 virus swept throughout the world as an unpleasant surprise for researchers. It kept changing its structure, so therapies and vaccines struggled to beat it.

“We underestimated the ability of things to mutate when they’re under pressure and have a large population in which to do so,” computational biologist Debora Marks stated. “Viruses are flexible: it’s almost like they’ve evolved to evolve.”

However, Marks and her team saw the pandemic as an opportunity to improve EVE. They rebuilt it into an AI virus tool called EVEscape that predicts viral variants.

They augmented its mutation prediction feature with biological and structural details of specific viruses. “We’re taking biological information about how the immune system works and layering it on our learnings from the broader evolutionary history of the virus,” co-lead author Nicole Thadani.

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The experts tried it on COVID-19, and it processed thousands of new SARS-CoV-2 variants produced weekly and identified the most problematic ones. “By rapidly determining the threat level of new variants, we can help inform earlier public health decisions,” said co-lead author Sarah Gurev.

The team posts a biweekly ranking of new SARS-CoV-2 variants found by EVEscape on their website. Visit that to see this AI virus tool in action.

The Harvard Gazette said EVEscape’s other essential application is evaluating vaccines and therapies against current and future viral variants. Consequently, it can help scientists design effective treatments that can fight viruses.

What is the AI program that detects antibodies?

Medical technology firm LabGenius created an artificial intelligence system of the same name, similar to EVEscape. I must differentiate between vaccines and antibodies before I continue.

Vaccines help your body’s immune system create antibodies for specific pathogens. Conversely, antibodies are immune system proteins that cling to viruses, bacteria, and other antigens.

Oxford and Harvard’s latest AI virus tool facilitates vaccine creation. On the other hand, LabGenius AI helps create antibodies by searching for the most promising combinations of amino acids.

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The AI program chooses more than 700 initial options from 100,000 potential antibodies. Afterward, it designs, builds, and tests them automatically.” Meanwhile, humans oversee the process by moving samples from one machine to another.

LabGenius learns from experimental results, increasing the chances of producing better results. Consequently, it is significantly more efficient than human protein designers.

“The only input you give the system as a human is, here’s an example of a healthy cell, here’s an example of a diseased cell,” CEO James Field stated. “And then you let the system explore the different [antibody] designs that can differentiate between them.”

Conclusion

The University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School developed an AI virus tool that helps create “future-proof” vaccines. EVEscape vaccines resist the escape mechanisms of specific viruses.

“We want to figure out how we can actually design vaccines and therapies that are future-proof, said Noor Youssef, a Marks Lab research fellow. Fortunately, recent findings suggest they succeeded.

Gain more information about the EVEscape AI virus tool on The Harvard Gazette. Learn more about the latest digital tips and trends at Inquirer Tech.