Human agents for developing scenarios to manage the COVID-19 pandemic
HFSP research grant alumnus Michael Meyer-Hermann is playing a central role in Germany's management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michael Meyer-Hermann in conversation with Guntram Bauer, HFSPO Director of Science Policy and Communications. The discussion centers around Michael's two HFSP grants and his recent work on modelling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mapping antibody epitopes onto protein structures with deep learning
HFSP Cross-Disciplinary Fellow Jérôme Tubiana and colleagues at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem developed ScanNet, an interpretable geometric deep learning model tailored for protein structures that extracts local atomic and amino acid neighborhoods within the structures and passes them through trainable motif-detecting filters. ScanNet was trained to predict epitopes using publicly available experimental structures of antibody-antigen complexes and was found to be significantly more accurate than prior approaches based on comparative modeling or feature-based machine learning. In particular, ScanNet could accurately predict the epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and in the future could prove useful for monitoring the emergence of new variants.
A hidden source for T cell epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 genome
A study by HFSP Long-Term Fellow Shira Weingarten-Gabbay and colleagues sheds light on an important yet overlooked source for T cell targets that can potentially increase COVID-19 vaccine efficacy. The team suggests that incorporating hidden T cell epitopes into future vaccines may improve T cell immunity.
Wearables can track physiological response to COVID and other diseases
HFSP research grant awardee Daniel Forger and colleagues at the University of Michigan have developed an algorithm that analyzes heart rate data from wearables measured over the course of a day to track many physiological systems.
Lab-grown mini-lungs reveal SARS-CoV-2 infection in human alveoli
HFSP grantee Young Seok Ju developed miniature models of critical lung structures called alveoli, and used them to study how the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infects the lungs in the laboratory.
A new meta-search tool identified SARS-CoV-2-like sequences in pangolin viromes
HFSP Long-Term Fellow Dae-Eun Jeong and colleagues developed a fast and extensive meta-search tool that led to the observation of SARS-CoV-2-homologous sequences in pangolin lung viromes.
The effects of COVID-19 on the brains of Covid long-haulers
HFSP alumna Fernanda de Felice is concerned that COVID-19 poses a risk to the brain and about the potential neurological consequences of infection.
What we can learn about vertebrate ancestry, immunology and skeletal formation from sponges
A historic HFSP research grant awarded in 1996 for the project “Invertebrate molecular immunology: alloreactivity and putative immune genes” has been credited as one of the cornerstones of an impressive body of research that includes the development of a new protective barrier preventing COVID-19 virus attachment to human cells in the airway system.