Soon, Computer Algorithms to Help Develop Flu Vaccines

Computer programs are being used by researchers to develop a fast and efficient method of generating vaccines for new strains of flu viruses.

Dimitris Papamichail, and a team of researchers from Stony Brook University have created algorithms that will design viruses that serve as live vaccines, which are then synthesized to specification.

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The new method is called Synthetic Attenuated Virus Engineering (SAVE).

"Our approach is not only useful for influenza; it is also applicable to a wide range of viruses," said Papamichail.

In this study, the researchers used a novel approach to weaken the influenza virus: they made a synthetic genome of the virus containing hundreds of changes to its genetic code.

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The computer algorithms indicate the best places in the genome to make the changes, such that the new synthetic genome encodes exactly the same proteins as the wild-type genome, but in lesser quantities.

"The probability of all the changes reverting themselves to produce a virulent strain is extremely unlikely," he says.

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The findings are available in an online publication by Nature Biotechnology.

Source-ANI