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IBM's Plan To Fight Zika And Other Runaway Viruses With Watson's Help

155 views · Published 17 May 2016 · 2:24 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: Healing Frequencies · 2016 · News & Politics

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IBM's Plan To Fight Zika And Other Runaway Viruses With Watson's Help.One of the biggest challenges posed by Zika is that it mutates rapidly, giving it the power to resist vaccines and possibly any other pharmaceutical weapons that may be aimed at the wily virus. But can computer science help outsmart Zika? The brains at IBM IBM -0.33% believe it can—and they have a plan to combat not just Zika, but hundreds more viruses, ranging from influenza to Ebola.

IBM announced today that it has identified a “macromolecule”—essentially a multi-pronged chemical construct, designed from the ground up by bioengineers—that may be able to cripple the ability of many types of viruses from becoming resistant to drugs. The molecule was developed and tested by IBM Research in conjunction with Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which formed a research partnership with the tech giant 12 years ago.
“All the technology we develop for semiconductors is directly transportable into medicine,” says James Hedrick, lead researcher for advanced organic materials at IBM Research in San Jose, CA. “How we make polymers, how we nano-construct materials—it is a perfect entryway.” IBM and IBN have been working together on several pursuits, including drug delivery, gene delivery and infectious disease control, he says.

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