AI's Breakthrough in Predicting Viral Outbreaks: A New Tool for Pandemic Forecasting

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Oxford have developed a new artificial intelligence tool called EVEscape, designed to predict how a virus could evolve to escape the immune system. EVEscape combines an evolutionary model of viral sequences with detailed biological and structural information about the virus, enabling it to forecast potential variants. A study showed that if deployed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, EVEscape would have accurately predicted SARS-CoV-2 mutations and variants. The tool has also demonstrated success in predicting variants for HIV and influenza. EVEscape's insights can aid in vaccine and therapy development.