Viruses are infectious agents that require a host to replicate. Generally, they are provoking severe and even lethal diseases. The recent worldwide pandemics due to COVID19 virus is one of the most emblematic examples. In Brazil, flaviviruses, like Zika or Dengue virus, were considered until 2019 as a major threat for the population’s health.

Another major feature of virus relies on their capacity to rapidly evolve and continuously mutating to counteract the immune system. Consequently, the identification of the nature of the variants requires appropriate diagnostics tools, like the use of specific antibodies. Moreover, how do small changes in sequence can impact the infectivity or the virulence of the virus is a major question?

Thus, despite a huge amount of research effort, many questions remain unsolved. To address these problems,  besides experimental techniques, computational approaches have become valuable approaches to gain information at a scale not reachable experimentally. This conference will give the opportunity to describe the main principles of some of these methods, how they permit to better understand viral proteins function, and their capacity to bring new therapeutic solutions. These features will be illustrated in a few cases, extracted from the recent literature but also for the examples we are working on in the context of the Catedras program.

Join us for a Zoom webinar on computational virology as part of our joint efforts on Structural Bioinformatics (under the program “Cátedras Franco-Brasileiras no Estado de São Paulo”).

Register here to attend the webinar (free).

A confirmation email will be sent to you with login details (only 250 seats are available).