Comments on: Building anti-flu drugs on a computer

By: Williamzheng

Williamzheng — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:45:07 +0000

So that’s a good idea!

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:24:23 +0000

Potentially a universal flu vaccine. Very impressive!

By: Katie Hall

Katie Hall — Sat, 14 May 2011 09:13:06 +0000

100,000 hours of parallel computing time might seem like a lot but if we can get a virus like H1 to implode itself or just smother it, they may be onto something huge, especially if this is a designer/targeted solution.

By: Druhim

Druhim — Sat, 14 May 2011 05:42:00 +0000

@ Seriously!
Keep in mind this isn’t a treatment. Presumably that’s what you meant when you asked your question. They haven’t even verified that this stops H1 flu yet. This is promising, but it’s not an anti-viral treatment. Yet.
And if it does work on H1 flu, then they have to find out if they can use the same approach on HIV and a range of other viruses. It’s too early to tell if it will be effective at all, let alone how broadly applicable it will be toward the range of viruses we wish to control.

By: Seriously!

Seriously! — Sat, 14 May 2011 03:32:15 +0000

Why can’t we do this with HIV?

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:58:17 +0000

This is interesting given that we don’t have many drugs to treat viruses.

I also think it’s interesting from the standpoint of being an application of basic research. Basic research is often harder to sell the public on, but this is a case where basic research in protein folding could lead to something that the public would find of great benefit.

By: Anjelica

Anjelica — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:50:38 +0000

This reminds me of an article I read this morning about a Canadian teen doing research on Cystic Fibrosis using super computers at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Here is the source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110512/sc_livescience/teendiscoverspromisingcysticfibrosistreatment

By: Chesan Milaros

Chesan Milaros — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:55:30 +0000

One need only bind to the small patch of protein responsible for host recognition. A reactive (suicide inhibitor) polysaccharide would do it – and be immensely cheaper (synthesis and equivalent weight) than a long polypeptide chain.

Management obsesses on what is measurable instead of promoting what is important. Management is rewarded for enforcing process not creating product.