Broad-spectrum Antiviral and Biostasis Therapeutics Enabled by Computational Design and Discovery
Visiting speaker
Charles Reilly
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Past Talk
In-person talk
Wednesday
May 24, 2023
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2:00 pm
EST
Virtual
177 Huntington Ave.
11th floor
Devon House
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK
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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
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.
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.