IBM, NASA and other organizations have put their supercomputers to the service of science in search of a coronavirus vaccine. Now the European Commission is moving in this direction, announcing that three supercomputer centers in Italy, Spain and Germany will participate in a European project together with a pharmaceutical company and several biology and biochemistry institutes, with the aim of investigating issues related to a vaccine, treatment and diagnosis. The initiative will receive support of three million euros from Europe.
Launched after a call from the European Union (EU) earlier this year, the Exscalate4CoV project complements the classic clinical trial of trial and error and a possible experiment on patients. In a statement, the EC further explains that this is possible by comparing the virus protein with the molecules stored in current databases.
But what is this initiative doing concretely? The project is processing digital models of the Coronavirus protein and comparing them with a database of thousands of existing drugs. The objective is to identify which combinations of active molecules could react to the virus.
At a time when Europe has not been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially Italy, which leads this initiative in which 18 countries participate, the EC has shown itself to be open to financing research projects in this area. Until March 18, for example, startups and SMEs were able to apply for a 164 million program.
Last week IBM reported that its supercomputer has discovered substances that can be tested to fight coronavirus. After sequencing the COVID-19 protein, the company created a computational model on its Summit supercomputer to find molecules linked to the viral protein. NASA also integrated a consortium that combines the computing power of laboratories, companies and academic institutions in the United States with the mission to find treatment for the new Coronavirus
In Europe, the pandemic is being fought on several fronts. Recently, a geo-location strategy of Europeans data was adopted to deal with COVID-19, and in a week more than 2,500 links were eliminated from the Internet, in what in a notorious use of the virus for online fraud. .
