Living Smart

006 007 I ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY parts can be tested in a range of different materials and scenarios. This way, the best combination of raw materials can be married together to create a best fit part, for specialized equipment as robust as a jumbo jet or even human teeth for dental implants. Ultimately, this technology allows us to solve real-world problems in a drastically faster, more cost-efficient way – it’s us humans who need to contemplate how technology should be deployed for the betterment of mankind. Published on October 31, 2018 Fighting disease with data and hope Prof. Matthew R. MCKAY Professor, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering B ig data is joining forces with medical researchers to fight deadly viruses and ultimately may change the way new vaccines are developed. Deadly viruses have plagued mankind throughout history. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the hepatitis C variety have challenged vaccine makers because of their ability to mutate and become resistant. Although the first attempts to develop a vaccine against HIV began in the 1980s, an effective AIDS vaccine still remains elusive. Similarly, for hepatitis C, there is currently no functional vaccine and research in this area is still ongoing. Playing a relentless game of catch up is exhausting, but big data algorithms are here to help. We have joined forces with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop machine learning algorithms that take in reams of complex patient data from global public databases, in order to create innovative algorithmic approaches to find viral hotspots that would wreak the most havoc on the virus’ fitness. This is a highly efficient strategy for coming up with vaccine targets by scanning areas of a virus’ surface in hopes of finding “the one that sticks”. The approach is time and cost efficient; with the potential (and hope) to aid a vaccine development breakthrough sooner. HIV is well known enough, but why focuses on hepatitis C? The World Health Organization studies indicate that, unlike