BIO-PLEX: An Innovative Biocomputational Approach to Decode the Secrets of the 2022 Mpox Resurgence
Saathvik Kannan · Columbia, Missouri
Regeneron Young Scientist Award ($50,000) · Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair · 2023
A pipeline combining machine learning with three-dimensional comparative protein modelling to work out why mpox became more transmissible after its 2022 resurgence, focusing on the structures the virus uses to replicate.
Two methods that answer different halves of the question: the model finds candidate changes, the structures explain why those changes matter. A pipeline that only did the first half would have produced a list without an explanation.
- Machine-learning sequence analysis
- Three-dimensional comparative protein modelling
- Structural comparison of viral proteins
- Public genomic data mining
- Pair a statistical method with a structural or mechanistic one — the first finds candidates, the second explains them
- An outbreak that is already in the news gives you a well-annotated public dataset on day one
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