LUCA The Deep Learning Hype Written by Alfonso Ibañez, Data Science manager at LUCA consulting analytics In the era of Big Data a day does not pass without us reading some news about Artificial Intelligence, Machine...
Olivia Brookhouse Going to the bar with Artifical Intelligence The average adult spends 2 months of their life queuing at bars and pubs for drinks and at Christmas these queues can seem even longer. Whilst some of us...
Beatriz Sanz Baños Movistar Car: transform your vehicle into a connected car The application of the Internet of Things in the devices of our environment has brought about an authentic revolution in our lives. Connectivity gives us an efficient digital life, both at work and...
Beatriz Sanz Baños The intelligence of IoT The combination of IoT technology with Artificial Intelligence makes it possible to improve people´s daily lives. This is demonstrated by applications such as virtual assistants or connected smart cities...
Nacho Brihuega Zerologon, Patch or Die! Zerologon. If you are in the IT world and haven’t heard this name yet, you should be worried. Keep reading. Zerologon is possibly the vulnerability of this “special” year and...
Miguel Ángel de Castro Vendetta Group and the COVID-19 Phishing Emails A new threat has entered the COVID-19 scene: the Vendetta Group. How are their phishing campaigns different from others?
How AI and Machine Learning help to develop vaccinesPatrick Buckley 14 December, 2020 As Christmas approaches this year, we have all been gifted the great news that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has shown to be both safe and effective in creating an immune response to COVID-19. Recently it has been approved for use both in the United States and the United Kingdom, with selected high risk British citizens becoming the first in the world to access the vaccine during early December. In this post we briefly explain how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies continue to play an increasingly important role in the development of vaccines. How do vaccines actually work? Vaccines create an immune response by exposing the patient to inactive, harmless virus particles known as proteins. Once the human body has been exposed to a virus, in an inactive form, it will develop antibodies. It is these antibodies which protect cells from becoming infected and, ultimately, prevent the patient from getting sick. Once these antibodies have been triggered once, the same immune response will be triggered every time the patient is exposed to the virus, allowing the patient to become immune. The role of AI. When described in brief, the process of formulating a vaccine seems straight forward; simply identify the virus, extract inactive proteins that generate the immune response and you have a vaccine! Unfortunately, the reality is far more complicated. For an immune response to be activated, specific parts of the virus have to be exposed to antibodies. The challenge therefore is being able to identify these specific parts and understand their properties. Once these properties have been identified, scientists can extract the correct viral proteins that will trigger the best immune response. AI is becoming an increasingly useful tool in this process. As the COVID-19 pandemic started to grip the world back in January 2020, researches from the University of Stanford started to use Machine Learning solutions to identify proteins to include in a potential vaccine. Firstly, proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were profiled, this is the virus which triggers COVID-19. Once the protein data had been collected, it was compared with data collected by researchers over many years on typical viral properties which trigger the antibodies to recognise common properties. Once this data has been collected on a large scale, scientists are able to predict which viral proteins will trigger an immune response. This process would have taken far longer without the use of this technology and many of the insights gathered could not have been spotted by the human eye. This technology allowed researchers to pass accurate insights and predictions to vaccine developers dynamically and quickly, allowing pharmaceutical companies to expedite the development of their vaccines without compromising on quality and safety. This technology is currently limited by the lack of data to refer to. As AI & Machine Learning tools are increasingly used in vaccine development, more data will be collected, and scientists will have a deeper understanding of the viral protein properties which generate the best immune response. Conclusion. Vaccine development is an extremely complex and intricate process. Although the technology is still in its early days, Machine Learning tools have already contributed to the successful development of vaccines. As we continue to use Machine Learning in vaccine development, the availability and quality of the data on which it relies will improve. As the data becomes increasingly insightful, Machine Learning tools will become increasingly useful in vaccine development. To keep up to date with LUCA visit our website, subscribe to LUCA Data Speaks or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube . We apply quantum technology to real use cases of Blockchain and IoTWhen will Robots find a place in the Smart Home?
Beatriz Sanz Baños Road safety and IoT Mobility is one of the key factors to consider in order to make cities more efficient, a necessity taking into account the millions of citizens travel to work or study centers in their vehicles. Taking...
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Fernando Menéndez-Ros Aura arrives in Colombia to transform the relationship with its customers During the Andicom International ICT Congress, which took place last Friday in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), the CEO of Telefónica Movistar in Colombia, Fabián Hernández, announced the launch of...