"We are shooting the coronavirus with a computer"

The Zaragoza scientist Jorge Júlvez collaborates on a project with the University of Cambridge.

Between de-escalation and outbreaks, science continues in its fight against nucleic acid wrapped in a lipid and surrounded (or crowned) by proteins. Some fight against covid even with the weapons of mathematics, like Jorge Júlvez, researcher at the I3A (Engineering Research Institute of Aragon).

Fight the damn virus with a calculator, I don't know...

In addition to medicine, coronavirus can also be fought through mathematics. If you want, I'll tell you...

That's what I've come for.

We work from the University of Zaragoza with the University of Cambridge. The English project would be a long name. In Spanish, something like 'Analysis of the impact of coronavirus on cellular behavior'. I spent four years at Cambridge in the Department of Biochemistry, although my training is as a computer engineer.

Good mix, biochemistry and computer science.

Studying dynamical network analysis, I saw that network theory was beginning to be applied to biological systems. For example, in a factory, cars enter and are distributed, different parts are assembled, others are stored, and in the end the car, the product, appears. If you make a schematic, you get a network that describes the behavior of the factory. There are also networks in cells. They are not cars, they are molecules.

I understand the simile.

The molecules that enter the cell (glucose, nutrients...) are broken down, assembled and joined with other types of molecules, they are distributed. With this mechanism, vital chemical reactions are carried out: cellular respiration, metabolism, protein production... A diagram or network can be made that represents the behavior of the cell. It is what mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers analyze to predict the cell's reaction to different stimuli.

What happens when a virus appears on the scene?

When the virus infects the cell, it drastically distorts this network of reactions. The virus hijacks, takes advantage of the network's reactions, steals the cell's resources to replicate.

So is the virus a thief?

A thief and a murderer, because the cell dies when you take away all its resources, not allowing it to develop its functions.

Damn virus.

When the cell dies, the viruses are released and infect other cells. Viruses by themselves are nothing: they neither eat nor drink... They are inert entities. They cannot reproduce on their own. This happens with all viruses, not just coronavirus. We study how the virus affects the cell's network of reactions. We want to see how the virus modifies the network and identify in which reactions a possible drug should act to block the virus, so that it cannot replicate and thus the cell can continue to perform its functions.

Is this whole strategy woven in Zaragoza?

In Zaragoza we study the computer science part, specifically with the researcher Álex Oarga. In England, in Cambridge, they focus on the biological part. From there Bridget Bannerman called me to develop the mathematical part of this project.

May I call the idea fascinating?

Without qualifiers, it would be something like identifying those reactions that may be the targets on which the drug should focus. We are shooting the coronavirus with a computer...

Will we hit the target soon?

Even though it bothers us to wear the mask, even though it feels like we've been dealing with the coronavirus for a long time, even though we're fed up with so many things, I assure you that four months is a very short time on the research calendar. And so much has never been investigated in such a short time. And a lot of progress has already been made. We will continue investigating from Zaragoza.