Zeblok Computational is contributing to the efforts of two groups of researchers at The Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, for COVID-19 drug discovery by providing Zeblok’s secure, scalable Supercomputing-as-a-Service platform, employing 128 GPUs from the CEWIT SMART GPU Cluster.
The Laufer Center simulations focus on 3 key proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to pinpoint more precisely which drug candidates have the best binding affinity to various protein targets:
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The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (which copies the virus inside the cell, thought to be the target of Gilead’s Remdesivir, now in clinical trials)
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The Protease (which chops up the virus proteins into the right pieces)
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The spike protein (which is how the virus unlocks the door to enter the cell).