"'AI-Equipped Supercomputer' IBM Summit Deployed for COVID-19 Vaccine Development Research"

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] The world's fastest supercomputer has been deployed in the vaccine development efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), identifying 77 drugs that can block the virus from penetrating host cells.

On the 19th (local time), CNN reported that IBM's supercomputer "Summit," equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), is conducting this drug analysis work.

Summit conducted thousands of simulations to analyze which drugs can effectively block the COVID-19 virus from penetrating host cells, and selected 77 drugs. CNN described this as a "green light for effective vaccine development." The Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy published these research results in the ChemRxiv journal.

Since 2014, IBM's Summit, deployed to solve major global issues at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy, has a performance of 200 petaflops (PFlops, 100 quadrillion operations per second). This is one million times more powerful than the fastest laptop computer. CNN reported Summit's role, stating, "The speed at which the coronavirus spreads means scientists must accelerate their research," and that this is "the reason the world's fastest supercomputer was created."

During this research, Summit tested over 8,000 drug compounds by binding them to the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus to determine how effectively they could block penetration into host cells.

Jeremy Smith, director of molecular biophysics research at Oak Ridge Laboratory, said, "This result does not mean that a cure for the coronavirus has been found," but added, "It is necessary to develop the most effective vaccine." Based on these research results, the laboratory plans to conduct a second simulation soon using more accurate models.