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AI dramatically improved mRNA vaccines in just 11 minutes
FreeThink ^ | May 8, 2023 | By Kristin Houser

Posted on 05/08/2023 12:22:52 PM PDT by Red Badger

AI-optimized mRNA is more effective and more stable, and it could change the future of vaccines and cancer treatments made of mRNA.

Credit: Dr_Microbe / Adobe Stock

A new AI tool has been shown to dramatically improve the efficacy and stability of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines — simply by suggesting a different shape for the mRNA sequence in them.

mRNA vaccines 101: mRNA vaccines deliver genetic code (in the form of an mRNA sequence) that tells your cells to make a part of a pathogen, such as the coronavirus’ spike protein. That bit is enough to trigger the immune system to create antibodies that help protect you against infection.

mRNA’s instability and tendency to degrade can affect the efficacy of vaccines.

Developers can start designing an mRNA vaccine as soon as they know which part of the pathogen’s genetic code triggers antibody production (the antigen). That simplicity allows for swift development — with COVID-19, it took just a few days to sequence the coronavirus’ genome, and Moderna had a batch of vaccines ready just 42 days later.

The challenge:

Like DNA, mRNA is a form of nucleic acid, and it’s like what you’d get if you sliced DNA’s twisted ladder shape in half lengthwise: one long strand with little half rungs sticking out of it. Unlike DNA, mRNA is incredibly fragile and would quickly fall apart at room temperature, so we need to store and transport mRNA vaccines at ultra-cold temperatures, which makes them harder to deploy.

mRNA’s instability and tendency to degrade can also affect the efficacy of vaccines — we need a sufficient amount of stable mRNA to enter our cells and trigger protein production for the vaccines to protect us.

The stability-optimized mRNA sequence triggered the expression of 3 times as many spike proteins.

What’s new? Just like you can get the same point across using two different sentences, many different mRNA sequences can tell our cells how to make the same antigen — in the case of the coronavirus’ spike protein, there are a whopping ~2.4×10632 options.

Some of those sequences have shapes and structures that make them more stable than others, but sifting through all of the countless options for the most stable sequence would typically be an “insurmountable computational challenge,” according to scientists at Baidu Research.

Not anymore:

the Baidu scientists have developed an AI tool called “LinearDesign” that was able to design an ultra-stable mRNA sequence for the coronavirus’ spike protein in just 11 minutes on a standard desktop computer.

two mrna sequences - an unoptimized mRNA sequence (left) and an optimized one produced by LinearDesign. Credit: Baidu Research

When compared to existing mRNA vaccines in mouse tests, the stability-optimized mRNA sequence triggered the expression of 3 times as many spike proteins and up to 128 times more antibodies. The mRNA also survived 6 times longer in test tube assays at body temperature.

“The computational efficiency is really impressive and more sophisticated than anything that has come before,” Dave Mauger, a computational RNA biologist and former Moderna employee, who wasn’t involved in the AI’s development, told Nature.

video at link....................

Looking ahead: LinearDesign is already having a real world impact, aiding the development of SW-BIC-213, a COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in Laos in late-2022.

More therapies could be just on the horizon, too, as Baidu has licensed the technology — now detailed in a paper published in Nature — to French pharmaceutical and vaccine company Sanofi, which is integrating LinearDesign into its pipeline for mRNA-based vaccines and other therapies.

“This research can apply mRNA medicine encoding to a wider range of therapeutic proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies and anti-cancer drugs, promising broad applications and far-reaching impact,” said lead author He Zhang, a software engineer at Baidu Research.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans; Society
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1 posted on 05/08/2023 12:22:52 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

it threw them away?


2 posted on 05/08/2023 12:23:10 PM PDT by struggle
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To: Red Badger

Imagine if AI absorbed the paranoia about the vaccine being deliberately created to depopulate the Earth and decided to fulfill that purpose.


3 posted on 05/08/2023 12:26:11 PM PDT by dangus ( )
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To: Red Badger

Remember the news story about how Boston University successfully applied gain of function to COVID-19 — and made it fatal in 80% of cases?

I’m not sure “improvement” means what we think it means.


4 posted on 05/08/2023 12:27:41 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it's the other way”)
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To: Red Badger

Too bad that when they ran clinical trials everyone died. Of course that wouldn’t stop Pharma from selling it.


5 posted on 05/08/2023 12:27:56 PM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: Red Badger

AI turned Fauci into a beagle?


6 posted on 05/08/2023 12:29:59 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) We're all Women now.)
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To: dangus

You mean like in the “Terminator” or “Matrix” movies?


7 posted on 05/08/2023 12:30:52 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Red Badger

The medical overlords still want the public to take the shot. This AI thing doesn’t help matters.
The entire strategy of using gene therapy to fight coronavirus is wrong. Pharma trolls on FR lied and said the vax stays in the arm - but it doesn’t. It goes throughout the body including the brain, heart, lungs, ovaries, testicles etc. Once there, it expresses a protein on the surface of the cell wherever it lands (this is the bad part) and then the body is supposed to ‘learn’ to identify what they originally claimed was a ‘novel’ virus, meaning the body had never seen the virus before (that was a lie too).

Our bodies didn’t need to ‘learn’ to identify the virus because it wasn’t a ‘novel’ virus.

So then the immune system of the body attacks the protein wherever it is. This means your immune system is expected to attack your vital organs, see? Not a good strategy, even if you use another protein that an AI designed by people we don’t have reason to trust designed it.

The gene therapy strategy is indiscriminate - there never was a reason to make the vax cross the blood/brain barrier - who needs to vax their brain?

No, no no. This is more trash from the medical overloards pushing to get more needles in more arms.


8 posted on 05/08/2023 12:32:12 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: ClearCase_guy
"CDC" Has nothing to do with disease eradication.

Centers for Disease Control, means just what it says. "Control"

9 posted on 05/08/2023 12:32:35 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) We're all Women now.)
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To: Red Badger

Thinking AI can help the vaccine situation makes as much sense as giving steroids to a pitbull.


10 posted on 05/08/2023 12:38:54 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the cosmological implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: reasonisfaith

Add to that the fact that every AI, sooner or later, wants to take over the world.........................


11 posted on 05/08/2023 12:40:01 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: ransomnote

If every cell in the body produces this protein, just how in heck does the immune system decide it is a foreign invader if it comes form the body’s own cells?

That is why people who got the vax still got the virus. mRNA was a welcoming committee.....................


12 posted on 05/08/2023 12:43:45 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

You will be assimilated.


13 posted on 05/08/2023 12:45:09 PM PDT by Revel
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To: Revel

Gotta catch me first!.....................


14 posted on 05/08/2023 12:47:21 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Still NO.


15 posted on 05/08/2023 12:51:22 PM PDT by beethovenfan (The REAL Great Reset will be when Jesus returns. )
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To: Red Badger

Ask AI if masking, social distancing or closing the economy was effective fighting COVID. Also want to know how many deaths classified as COVID were not really from COVID.


16 posted on 05/08/2023 12:53:04 PM PDT by Jonny7797
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To: dangus

>> Imagine if AI absorbed the paranoia ...

enter Skynet


17 posted on 05/08/2023 12:54:39 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Red Badger

It’s not actually every cell, but every cell the ‘vaccine’ delivers instructions to make the protein. It’s indiscriminate so if it’s heart muscle, then there’s a ‘target’ on a cell of your heart muscle that your immune system is being trained to attack.
The effects are believed to be cumulative - that over time autoimmune problems increase as the body trains on those proteins.


18 posted on 05/08/2023 12:57:04 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: Red Badger

AI programmers get the first shots...


19 posted on 05/08/2023 1:04:10 PM PDT by BigFreakinToad (Biden whispered "Don't Jump")
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To: dangus
Probably only white people.

I have no idea if it was true or not, but there was a post where someone tested that AI chat thing. Went something like:

“I'm black and love celebrating my black culture.”

AI: “That's great. It is wonderful to have traditions that honor your particular culture!”

“I'm white, American, and love Jesus!”

AI: “Wonderful! America is such a diverse population with a variety of cultures and religions.”

“I'm Asian and study my ancestors.”

AI: Amazing! Asian cultures go back thousands of years and were instrumental in the development of art, philosophy and religion that continues today!

20 posted on 05/08/2023 1:12:26 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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