FIAS Fellows Roberto Covino and Sebastian Thallmair introduced the audience at the FIAS Forum to the world of computer models. Using clear and vivid imagery, they described how digital twins open up new avenues for research into cellular and health-related processes.

Following an introduction by administrative director Anja Sälzer and PhD student Thilo Duve, FIAS Senior Fellow Roberto Covino took guests on a journey to his home country Italy: Starting with Galileo's observations, he described how early models, formulas, and numerical models—step-by-step approximations—advanced research. Today, such calculations are performed by high-performance computers such as those available at FIAS. It took six months and the energy consumption of a small town to calculate the spike proteins of the coronavirus. The valuable insight: mobile sugars (glycans) protect the surface of the virus like windshield wipers. Thanks to computer models, it is now possible to identify unprotected targets for drugs and antibodies.

FIAS Fellow Sebastian Thallmair described how the first digital twins—computer copies as models—were created. What has long been commonplace in industry, such as in vehicle manufacturing, has only found its way into biology in recent years. Thallmair described how complex this can be with two figures: Humans consist of around 7x10²⁷ atoms, making it completely unimaginable to calculate all their functions. For example, around one third of all protein structures in the pancreas are not even known yet, with another third only suspected. Nevertheless, the FIAS teams are successfully venturing into modeling living systems. One success was the prediction of important protein structures in the eye (see News / FIAS). Such modeling will accelerate drug development, preventive treatment, and drug approval in the future.

Both scientists and their teams will contribute their expertise to the new SCALE Cluster of Excellence (News / FIAS).

In the subsequent discussion and at the reception with drinks and snacks, visitors were enthusiastic about the clear and informative presentations and were keen to find out more details.