BioNTech Partners With London-Based AI Developer To Predict COVID-19 Variants

BioNTech SE BNTX said it’s working with London-based AI developer InstaDeep to develop a new computational method that analyzes sequencing data and predicts high-risk variants SARS-CoV-2.

• The early warning system combines structural modeling of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and AI algorithms to flag potentially high-risk variants entered into SARS-CoV-2 sequence data repositories “within less than a day,” based on metrics scoring their fitness and their immune escape properties.
• The partners claimed that the trial period of the system identified >90% of WHO-designated variants two months faster than other international experts.
• “More than 10,000 novel variant sequences are currently discovered every week, and human experts simply cannot cope with complex data at this scale,” said Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep.
• Price Action: BNTX shares are down 4.46% at $219.74 during the market session on the last check Tuesday.