Super Computer May Have Figured Out How To Stop Coronavirus

The last couple of weeks we've been hearing about some possible vaccine breakthroughs or current vaccines that may also help.  So far we're told that it may be a year before we actually have something that gets the green light.  I say lets try these drugs and see what happens.  They've been approved so what do we have to lose.  If that doesn't happen at least a super computer give us a little hope.

In an article on wnls.com, apparently the world’s fastest supercomputer identified chemicals that could stop coronavirus from spreading, which experts say is a crucial step toward a vaccine.  IBM’s supercomputer “Summit” ran thousands of simulations to analyze which drug compounds might effectively stop the virus from infecting host cells. It identified 77 such chemicals, according to a report from CNN.  Summit was commissioned by the US Department of Energy in 2014 to help solve the world’s problems. At its station in Tennessee, Summit has identified patterns in cellular systems that precede Alzheimer’s, analyzed genes that contribute to traits like opioid addiction and predicted extreme weather based on climate simulations.

It’s got the power of 200 petaflops, which means it has the computing speed of 200 quadrillion calculations per second. That’s about a million times more powerful than the fastest laptop.  Summit modeled how different drug compounds might prevent the coronavirus from spreading to other cells.

Viruses infect host cells by injecting them with a “spike” of genetic material. Summit’s job is to find chemicals that could block that process.  The supercomputer ran simulations of over 8,000 compounds, found 77 that could be effective, then ranked them based on how likely they were to bind to the spike.  The team will run the simulations on Summit again, using a more accurate model of the coronavirus’ spike that was published this month. Experimental studies will be required to prove which chemicals work best.