New Delhi: Scientists have developed a model that they say predicts the likely evolution of variants of theS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19.
The researchers from the University of Cologne in Germany and the Icahn School of Medicine, US, noted that the predictions of viral evolution obtained from the model can help design vaccines that are optimally effective against future variants. Predictive modeling is a mathematical process used to predict future events or outcomes by analysing patterns in a given set of input data.
The model predicts which of the variants can escape human immunity, spread through the population and eventually become new major variants. It also identifies likely pathways of escape evolution even before new variants actually emerge, according to the study published in the journal Cell.
During theS-CoV-2 pandemic, a new variant replaced the previous one in successive epidemic waves. However, several variants are now globally circulating at the same time and compete with each other. This is where predictive models become important to identify those variants that will likely rise to predominance in the near future, the researchers said.