New Initiative Uses Artificial Intelligence for Covid Vaccine Development

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed the COVID-19 outbreak, a pandemic in March 2020, the virus has destroyed more than 2.5 million lives worldwide, with laboratory testing confirming up to 113 million cases (March 2021).Fortunately, by the start of 2021, several vaccines received emergency clearance and began to be distributed in countries around the world. About 300 million vaccine doses had been distributed globally as of March 2021. The numbers indicated a possible return to ‘normalcy’. Technology around the world co-joined to get us out of this devastating tragedy. Population Health management worldwide suffered a huge blow which made covid-19 drug development an impending need of the society.

The synthesis of AI with Vaccine production

Vaccine production can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, owing to the com-plexities of the human immune system and its diversity among individuals and classes. Preclinical science has been attempting to unravel the fundamental mechanisms by which the human immune system battle diseases, using advances in computation and artificial intelligence, genomics, systems biology, and bioinformatics. Reports claim that models powered by artificial intelligence that enable researchers to remotely test new vaccines and predict which treatments can function best across populations could speed up vaccine and drug production, saving costs on trials, and research. Covid vaccine development through artificial intelligence hence proves to be one of the most promising ways ahead.

AI aiding Scientific Research and Development

In the early days of the pandemic, a team of computer scientists at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) led by Russ Altman and Binbin Chen used machine learning to perform various experiments and assessments. The researchers developed a list of targets on the novel coronavirus that were most likely to elicit an immune response using the neural-network algorithms- NetMHCpan-4.0 and MARIA, as well as a linear-regression model called DiscoTope.AI-based classifiers were used for predicting the outcome of COVID-19 RT-PCR outcomes using 16 basic parameters obtained from the full blood profiling. This may be useful in limiting the number of RT-PCR experiments in resource-constrained environments.

AI-based triage technologies can help reduce the workload of medical providers and health pro-fessionals by automating procedures such as recruiting clinicians, determining the mode of treatment and care by reviewing clinical evidence through pattern analysis methods, digitalizing patient records, and providing strategies that reduce their interaction with patients.AI and design artificial intelligence models can do much more than pinpointing immunogenic areas on a virus. Computational techniques are now being used by several vaccine researchers to construct and synthesize the genetic predispositions of DNA-based vaccinations.

Never before in human history has there been such a competition to produce a vaccine against a pathogen. By using the power of artificial intelligence research, the rate of discovery can be greatly increased.

AI in relation to Human efforts

Since the current situation necessitates the urgent delivery of remedies, the response to this epidemic was greatly aided by numerous emerging technology and artificial intelligence tools. In COVID-19 diagnosis and drug development, AI was found to be on par with, if not more reliable than, human experts. Though AI cannot determine the outcome of human trials, it can make sense of the huge amounts of data generated by certain tests by examining all variables and identifying patterns that a human brain might miss. Hundreds of patients will be involved as vaccine candidates progress through the second and third phases of clinical trials, and Artificial intelligence will be critical in quickly examining the clinical and immunologic data.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence has been one of the fastest evolving technologies made available to man. It has not only spearheaded some of the most important solutions for pressing problems in the society, such as helping soothe the covid crisis. Attah is one of the pioneering names in the field of Artificial Intelligence which is actively contributing to the sphere of knowledge. With a versatile approach to problem solving, it has helped in overcoming small scale as well as mega obstacles. Check the website for more information regarding the same.

Sources
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/new-initiative-uses-artificial-intelligence-for-vaccine-development
https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-it/4-ways-ai-can-help-with-covid-19-vaccination-svetlana-sicular/81782358