BioNTech And AI Startup Are Working On Tool To Predict High-Risk Coronavirus Variants

BioNTech And AI Startup Are Working On Tool To Predict High-Risk Coronavirus Variants
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According to the latest reports, there’s a new early warning system that can predict the highest-risk coronavirus variants simply from their genetic code. This will alert health authorities and vaccine developers to the potential risks months before they spread, a new study said.

Financial Times publication notes that the artificial intelligence-based program, developed by BioNTech (which is the German biotech group behind the leading Covid-19 vaccine) and North African AI start-up InstaDeep, identified more than 90 percent of variants of concern.

It’s important to note that this includes the highly transmissible Omicron strain.

The study’s results reveal risk evaluation status 

It’s been reported that the results from the study are showing the fact that the program can evaluate the risks of new variants from their spike proteins within minutes, and monitor them as they evolve “nearly in real time”, according to the two companies.

Source: Pixabay
Source: Pixabay

Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech, said the tool would be made freely available. Check out what he said below: 

“Early flagging of potential high-risk variants could be an effective tool to alert researchers, vaccine developers, health authorities and policymakers, providing more time to respond to new variants of concern.”

Financial Times brings up another important quote that you can see below.

“More than 10,000 novel variant sequences are discovered every week and human experts simply cannot cope with complex data at this scale.”

This is what Karim Beguir, co-founder and chief executive of UK-based InstaDeep said.

He continued and stated the following:

“For the first time, high-risk variants could be detected on the spot, potentially saving months of precious time.”

Coronavirus in the news

Earlier today, we addressed more important issues that involve the novel coronavirus.

The latest Senate hearing of dr. Anthony Fauci and the director of the Centers for Disease Control Rochelle Walensky has been making headlines all over the place.

The hearing is on the federal response to Omicron. The officials have been faced with questions about muddled messaging, shifting pandemic guidelines, and the Biden administration’s plan for increased coronavirus testing. Check out more reports on the issue in our previous article. 


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Rada Mateescu

Passionate about freedom, truth, humanity, and subjects from the science and health-related areas, Rada has been blogging for about ten years, and at Health Thoroughfare, she's covering the latest news on these niches.

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