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As tropical diseases spread from their historic homelands to newer regions, including Europe and the United States, British researchers equipped with high-performance cloud computing have come up with a new means of vaccination against one of the most resistant to treatment.
Scientists at University of Bristol and the French Scientific Research National Center propose to use a protein molecule produced in the laboratory that can serve as an administration system for future vaccines against chikungunya, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The results, which will be published in an article this week in the newspaper Progress of scienceshow how the protein can be easily manufactured and stored for weeks at warm temperatures, making it easier to ship to areas where refrigeration is a barrier. It is also easy to produce in large quantities, an advantage because the disease spreads north.
Computer representation of the synthetic protein particle tested for a new vaccine.
University of Bristol
"The sample is so stable that you can transport it at room temperature, that's the big problem," says Imre Berger, professor of biochemistry at the University of Bristol and one of the authors of the paper. The design of what is called the vaccine scaffold, or system of administration, involved the construction of detailed 3D images from cryogenically frozen specimens scanned electron microscopically. , using high performance cloud computing from Oracle. "You have to see what you're engineering," he says. "It's a tailored solution for the cloud, because each image can be processed in parallel."
The work could contribute to efforts to counter tropical viruses that have spread beyond their usual areas.
The chikungunya, whose name derives from the East African makonde language and describes the pain-bent walk, is linked to dengue fever and causes high temperatures, joint pain and exhaustion. It spreads among humans by the bite of a tiger mosquito in good conditions. There are no treatments or vaccines available, although the French biotechnology company Valneva in May. reported promising results of a chikungunya vaccine trial in 120 healthy volunteers in the United States.
The disease belongs to a group of diseases, including the Zika virus, previously encountered mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and India, and spread to the northern hemisphere with globalization and warmer climates, infected mosquitoes are pushing mosquitoes far north of their normal range. A mysterious outbreak since a dozen years there is in northern Italy among the villagers who had not traveled abroad turned out to be chikungunya. Disease spread in Florida in 2014. Zika also broke out in the US with a wave of cases in 2016 and an infection in Texas two years ago.
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To develop a vaccine candidate called ADDomer, scientists have synthesized a protein resembling a buckyball or 12-sided molecule that can carry an antigen, or a substance that can stimulate an immune response to the virus. Experiments have shown that ADDomer mimics the behavior of the virus in mice and induces immune responses, according to the Progress of science paper. The scientists' innovation is the scaffolding, which has shown that they can accommodate hundreds of different epitopes, the target to which an antibody binds during an immune response.
Visualize the proteins with the help of Oracle cloud infrastructure Frederic Garzoni, co-author of the document and co-founder of Imophoron, played a key role in the design of the molecule and cost only a fraction of the cost of using an on-site supercomputer cluster. a startup founded to market the scientists' approach.
ADDomer scientists studied the molecular structure of synthetic protein using computer-generated images, assembled from views taken by the University of Bristol. cryo-electronic microscope. The device quickly freezes samples containing liquid nitrogen at near 200 degrees Celsius to obtain two-dimensional images. These can be built using special software in 3D images at almost atomic resolution.
"The functioning of the protein is closely related to its 3D form," says Christopher Woods, a software engineering researcher at the University of Bristol, involved in computer work. Spending only £ 217 ($ 270) & nbsp; sure Oracle CPU and GPU As a cloud service, the team processed a large number of cryo-electronic microscopy images to generate a unique 3D structure. "If you only need to generate an image from time to time, it's obviously a lot cheaper to do it in the cloud," he says.
Public cloud computing is becoming more and more increase or replace traditional supercomputers molecular biology, physics and other scientific fields.
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As tropical diseases spread from their historic homelands to newer regions, including Europe and the United States, British researchers equipped with high-performance cloud computing have come up with a new means of vaccination against one of the most resistant to treatment.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the French National Center for Scientific Research propose to use a molecule of protein produced in the laboratory that can serve as a system of administration of future vaccines against chikungunya, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The results, which will be published in an article this week in the journal Progress of scienceshow how the protein can be easily manufactured and stored for weeks at warm temperatures, making it easier to ship to areas where refrigeration is a barrier. It is also easy to produce in large quantities, which is an advantage because the disease spreads to the north.
Computer representation of the synthetic protein particle tested for a new vaccine.
University of Bristol
"The sample is so stable that you can transport it to room temperature, that's quite a problem," says Imre Berger, professor of biochemistry at the University of Bristol and author of the paper. The design of what is called the vaccine scaffold, or delivery system, involved the construction of detailed 3D images from cryogenically frozen specimens scanned under an electron microscope, at the same time. Using high performance cloud computing from Oracle. "You have to see what you're engineering," he says. "It's a tailored solution for the cloud, because each image can be processed in parallel."
The work could contribute to efforts to counter tropical viruses that have spread beyond their usual areas.
The chikungunya, whose name derives from the East African makonde language and describes the pain-bent walk, is linked to dengue fever and causes high temperatures, joint pain and exhaustion. It spreads among humans by the bite of a tiger mosquito in good conditions. There is no treatment or vaccine available, although the French biotechnology company Valneva announced in May the promising results of a chikungunya vaccine trial conducted among 120 healthy volunteers in the United States .
The disease belongs to a group of diseases, including the Zika virus, previously encountered mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and India, which have spread to the northern hemisphere as a result of globalization and global warming. that push infected mosquitoes north of their normal range. A mysterious outbreak of disease a dozen years ago in northern Italy among villagers who had not traveled abroad proved to be chikungunya . The disease spread to Florida in 2014. Zika also made its appearance in the United States with a wave of cases in 2016 and an infection in Texas two years ago.
Freezer
To develop a vaccine candidate called ADDomer, scientists have synthesized a protein resembling a buckyball or 12-sided molecule that can carry an antigen, or a substance that can stimulate an immune response to the virus. Experiments have shown that ADDomer mimics the behavior of the virus in mice and induces immune responses, according to the Progress of science paper. The scientists' innovation is the scaffolding, which has shown that they can accommodate hundreds of different epitopes, the target to which an antibody binds during an immune response.
Visualizing proteins with the help of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure was a key component of the design of the molecule and only cost a fraction of the cost of using it. a supercomputer cluster on site, according to Frederic Garzoni, co-author of the paper and co-author. founder of Imophoron, a startup created to commercialize the approach of scientists.
ADDomer scientists investigated the molecular structure of the synthetic protein using computer-generated images assembled from views taken with the Bristol University Cryo-Electronic Microscope. The device quickly freezes samples containing liquid nitrogen at near 200 degrees Celsius to obtain two-dimensional images. These can be built with the help of special software in 3D images at almost atomic resolution.
"The functioning of the protein is closely related to its 3D form," says Christopher Woods, a software engineering researcher at the University of Bristol, involved in computer work. By spending only £ 217 (US $ 270) on Oracle energy for the Oracle processor and graphics processor delivered as a cloud service, the team processed a large number of cryo-electron microscope images in order to to generate a unique 3D structure. "If you only need to generate an image from time to time, it's obviously a lot cheaper to do it in the cloud," he says.
Public cloud computing is increasing or replacing more and more traditional supercomputers in the fields of molecular biology, physics, and other scientific fields.