..well the theory is definitely plausible....this is already happening in a
way. Combinatorial chemistry is a relatively new field which relies on the
analysis of numerous permutations and combinations of proteins and their
response to a substrate
....this requires a lot of computer power...at the moment this type of
experiment or screening process also requires the experiment to be
physically carried out rather than virtually...however it is certainly
conceivable that this process could be carried out entirely in the virtual
sense once we have a better understanding of how proteins etc. function in 3
space.
....I think your oral surgeon is jumping the gun though....the number of
parameters required for an analysis such as the one you suggested would be
astronomical....and unless we engineer some sort of artificial intelligence
in to the computer, these parameters would have to be entered by lowly
humans....
....computer power won't be the answer to the problem of finding vaccines
etc.. but it will certainly speed the process up....remember you first need
the understanding of how the viral proteins and/or genome function during
infection...this requires basic, "traditional" research methods which could
take a lot of time; second you need an understanding of how the gene
products function in 3 space....something which also requires time
Bruce Compton <bcompton at quik.com> wrote in message
news:3834BD00.3EED7723 at quik.com...
| Perhaps someone in the medical community can enlighten me as to the
| outlook for (futuristic?) procedures in the development of vaccines
| through the use of computers.
| My oral surgeon recently suggested that supercomputers in the next
| century would be able to analyze viruses and routinely run through every
|| chemical combination which could be usd to combat the virus until the
| correct combination is found and a vaccine would be created. He
| suggested that, although perhaps not in our lifetimes, but maybe our
| childrens', any new virus which would appear would be routinely
| eliminated by computer-generated vaccines. Part of the problem, he
| suggested, is developing fast enough computers to run through all the
| combinations. His description reminded me of Microsoft's anti-virus crew
|| working day and night for a couple of days sometimes to produce a patch
| when e.g. a significant new internet-related virus would be introduced.
| What do you
| think of his theory? Do you think that disease of any kind will be wiped
|| out by computers by the end of the next century?
| Any comments or response related to this subject would be immensely
| appreciated.
| Bruce Compton
|bcompton at quik.com|
