Biontech develops AI system for early detection

Frankfurt With an AI-based early warning system, the Mainz company Biontech and its British partner Instadeep want to significantly improve and accelerate the prediction of dangerous virus variants. The system that the partners presented on Tuesday afternoon is a calculation method based on sequence data that is available worldwide. According to Biontech, the system is able to identify high-risk variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus two months earlier than conventional methods.

“With the new calculation methods that we have developed over the past few months, we can analyze the sequence information of the spike protein and classify new variants according to their predicted immune escape and ACE2 binding score,” explained Biontech boss Ugur Sahin. Both factors determine how strongly and how quickly the pathogen can spread. The ACE2 binding is relevant to the ability of viruses to penetrate body cells.