Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a machine-learning model that can analyze millions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes and predict which viral variants will likely dominate and cause surges in COVID-19 cases. The model, called PyR0 (pronounced “pie-are-nought”), could help researchers identify which parts of the viral genome will be less likely to mutate and hence be good targets for vaccines that will work against future variants. The findings appear today in Science.
The researchers trained the machine-learning model using
