Coronavirus caught us all off guard. Can we prevent a future pandemic?

• Date: 30 March 2021
• Author: ZACHARY KEYSER
• Published date: 30 March 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The system would make it easier for researchers from across the globe to communicate the molecular makeup of the next pathogen that poses a biological threat to the world.

An AIS would allow scientists to quickly develop an understanding of the virus, treatments, vaccines and how to prevent its spread, which holds the potential to save countless lives.

"Structural models and other experimental results produced by various laboratories must follow a standard evaluation procedure to ensure that they are accurate and conform to accepted scientific standards," said Wladek Minor, PhD, Harrison Distinguished Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics at UVA.

"Standardized validation is important for all areas of biomedical sciences, especially for structural models, which are often used as a starting point in subsequent research, such as computer-guided drug docking studies and data mining. Even seemingly insignificant errors can lead such research astray," he added.

The international team, led by UVA, claims that its critical that the structural data and how it spreads are as accurate as possible, when being communicated from one set of researchers to the others and that the scientists within their fields are speaking the same language as one another when discussing the findings.

The AIS - which would essentially be a compilation of all this data in a conformed manner across research disciplines - would be able to identify structures in the molecular makeup which could be "refined and improved," the researchers note. This information specifically is what leads to the development of treatments and other preventative measures when preventing another pandemic.

Within the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic, data from around the world was collected in the Protein...