Chasing the virus - Computer help for treating AIDS patients

Before this background there are two main research challenges. First we have to continuously develop new drugs that are effective against (formerly) resistant virus forms. Second, we need to find for each patient a personalized therapy consisting of a drug combination that provides a high barrier for the virus’ escape to resistance.

Both challenges are increasingly addressed with bioinformatics methods. In drug development pharmaceutical industry uses computer-based docking methods that model the binding behavior of putative drugs against their target protein. For therapy selection there are internet-based servers that are used in clinical practice. The basis for some of these servers are statistical models that estimate the effectiveness of a considered therapy on the basis of the genome of the dominant viral variant prevalent inside the patient.

The talk introduces into the molecular basis of HIV infection and survey relevant bioinformatics solutions in this area.