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COVID-19-Related Research at SeRC

Olivia Eriksson, SeRC

Researchers from the Swedish e-Science Research Centre (SeRC) are involved in a number of research projects directed towards the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the disease that results from infection by that virus, COVID-19. Many of these projects use tools that have been developed earlier within the centre and build on knowledge from previous projects.

Within the Data Science MCP  (Multi-disciplinary Collaboration Program), large-scale modelling of the human-SARS-CoV interactome is being performed to find out how the SARS- CoV-2 proteins interact with the different human proteins. This project involves data science, machine learning and physical simulations. Another project within the Data Science MCP performs studies of structural modelling and docking of proteins and protein complexes related to this new coronavirus.

The SeRC Exascale Simulation Software Initiative  (SeSSI) MCP is involved in molecular dynamics simulations of virus proteins within the FOLDING@HOME  project and they contribute to pharmaceutical research by the new EU consortium ( EXSCALATE4COV ). SeSSI is also involved in fluid dynamics simulations of complex fluids related to COVID-19, such as simulation of mucus droplet formation in alveoli and assessing the sensitivity of simulations to problem parameters (including geometry, resolution, fidelity, setup, and mask age).

The eScience for Cancer Prevention and Control  (eCPC) MCP is comparing different national and international COVID-19 epidemiological models in collaboration with epidemiologists, biostatisticians and modellers from other universities. Some SeRC groups are also applying Bayesian methodology to epidemiologic models using, for example, Swedish data in order to make informed forecasts including uncertainty quantification.