Combining machine learning and iterative experiments to keep pace with emerging viral variants of concern (opens in new tab)

Author summary The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the threat posed by rapidly evolving viruses. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to mutate in ways that can reduce the effectiveness of neutralizing antibodies from vaccines or prior infection. Predicting which viral variants might escape immune detection and identifying antibodies that can still work against them remains a major challenge. In this study, we developed a machine learning framework that helps forecast how mutat...