Science s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation
ILLUSTRATION: STEPHAN SCHMITZ/FOLIO ART
In March 2020, as the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic was coming into view, Jen Nwankwo and colleagues turned a pair of artificial intelligence (AI) tools against SARS-CoV-2. One newly developed AI program, called SUEDE, digitally screens all known druglike compounds for likely activity against biomolecules thought to be involved in disease. The other, BAGEL, predicts how to build inhibitors to known targets. The two programs searched for compounds able to block human enzymes that play essential roles in enabling the virus to infect our cells.
While SUEDE sifted through 14 billion compounds in just hours and spit out a hit, BAGEL made equally fast work of designing a lead. Nwankwo, CEO of a Massachusetts biotech startup called 1910 Genetics, asked a chemical company partner to synthesize the compounds. A week or so later, her team received the orders, added each compou
Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
In March 2020, as the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic was coming into view, Jen Nwankwo and colleagues turned a pair of artificial intelligence (AI) tools against SARS-CoV-2. One newly developed AI program, called SUEDE, digitally screens all known druglike compounds for likely activity against biomolecules thought to be involved in disease. The other, BAGEL, predicts how to build inhibitors to known targets. The two programs searched for compounds able to block human enzymes that play essential roles in enabling the virus to infect our cells.
While SUEDE sifted through 14 billion compounds in just hours and spit out a hit, BAGEL made equally fast work of designing a lead. Nwankwo, CEO of a Massachusetts biotech startup called 1910 Genetics, asked a chemical company partner to synthesize the compounds. A week or so later, her team received the orders, added each compound in turn to human cells, and learned
About a dozen COVID-19 vaccines have been approved around the world, providing a possible path out of the pandemic. But hurdles have emerged, including logistical issues around vaccine rollouts, a rising tide of worrisome variants, and uncertainty around the longevity of immunity. New trials underway to test combinations of different manufacturers’ vaccines seek to overcome some of these challenges.
“It’s really exciting that we have these combination trials,” says Sarah Caddy, a viral immunologist at the University of Cambridge. “If we can use different vaccines, that opens opportunities for vaccinating more people.” In addition, she notes, “there’s some evidence that mixing and matching vaccines could give us better immune responses.”
The vaccination question: Forum offers perspectives from African American, Latino communities
In this undated photo provided by Johnson & Johnson in September 2020, a woman receives an injection during testing for the Janssen Pharmaceutical-Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Johnson & Johnson via AP
Published: 3/7/2021 11:41:21 AM
The message that landed in the chat box cut to the crux of an online forum Friday afternoon on perspectives about the COVID-19 vaccine within African American and Latino communities.
“Many of my circle of friends/family from the Latino and African American community will not be taking the vaccine,” one attendee wrote. “I understand their concerns . but hope that with conversations and education, they would have more trust.”
Paul Brassil of
Medfield has joined the company as senior vice president/chief information officer and will oversee PCU’s information technology and digital innovation efforts.
Brassil has more than 25 years of experience in the information technology leadership field with entities such as Commonwealth Medicine (a division of UMass Medical School), the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, EMC Corp. and Siemens IT Solutions and Services Inc.
He holds an MS in computer information systems from Bentley University in
Waltham and a BA in Business Administration from Bridgewater State University.
Brassil s community involvement spans initiatives focused on workforce development and industry leadership serving as a member of the Tech Hire Advisory Group of Boston’s Private Industry Council (comprised of Boston CIOs developing summer intern programs for low/moderate income students in the Boston Public Schools); an adviser for Fintech Women (helping women in banking/finance/fintech a