|Talks|

Broad-spectrum Antiviral and Biostasis Therapeutics Enabled by Computational Design and Discovery

Visiting speaker
In-person
Past Talk
Charles Reilly
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Wed, May 24, 2023
6:00 PM UTC
Wed, May 24, 2023
6:00 PM UTC
In-person
4 Thomas More St
London E1W 1YW, UK
The Roux Institute
Room
100 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04101
Network Science Institute
2nd floor
Network Science Institute
11th floor
177 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Room
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK

Talk recording

Broad-spectrum Antiviral and Biostasis Therapeutics are two programs that highlight the development of a new computational initiative at the Wyss Institute. The Computational Design and Discovery initiative closely integrates experimental data with in silico modeling. Predictive bioanalytics and machine learning are combined with simulation and multiscale modeling to achieve this. The Antiviral Therapeutics program uses simulation, machine learning, and medicinal chemistry to discover broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics for future pandemic preparedness. Small molecules are designed to interfere with highly conserved viral protein shape changes that occur in changing microenvironments essential for host cell entry, and their activities are validated through experimentation. The biostasis program aims to develop small molecules that broadly slow all biological activity to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment following traumatic injury or acute infection. The fundamental technologies developed in this program also have medical and sustainability opportunities that are being explored. These are related to reducing the need for cold chain storage of food and vaccines. The program also has uncovered new therapeutic design approaches and a new potential mechanism for the molecular basis of bioactive phytonutrients. The approach to tackling this challenge blends machine learning and molecular dynamic simulation to develop small molecules that self-assemble into highly ordered structures and slow all biochemical activity. Again, the activities of these biostasis inducer drugs have been validated through experimentation. Grant acknowledgments: Wyss Institute (Computational Design and Discovery Initiative and Mechanivir validation project), DARPA-Biostasis, DARPA -- Ultra-Rapid Drug Repurposing for COVID-19 Therapeutics, NIH/NCATS: Spike Protein Inhibitors for SARS-CoV2, Open Philanthropy -- Broad Spectrum Antivirals for Future Pandemic Preparedness.

About the speaker
Charles Reilly is a Principal Scientist who leads the Computational Design and Discovery Initiative at Harvard's Wyss Insitute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, combining predictive bioanalytics and machine learning with physical and mathematical modeling and simulation. Specifically, he uses a computational approach that combines tools from the film special effects industry with scientific modeling to understand multiscale molecular biophysics and the design of therapeutics. Reilly also uses art for the development of hypotheses. His video installation, The Choreography of Life, was included in the Smithsonian Design Museum's permanent collection in 2020. Reilly earned a PhD in biochemistry with a focus on immunoproteomics at the University of Melbourne, where he developed novel mass spectrometry techniques for vaccine discovery. In 2017, the World Frontiers Forum named Reilly the Young Pioneer in Physics. Before beginning his research career, he worked in Film Post Production at Peter Jackson's Park Road Post in New Zealand.
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May 24, 2023