Scientists across Europe are using the supercomputing network Fenix to advance research on COVID-19. Fenix is a distributed computing infrastructure providing High Performance computing, cloud and data resources to European research and scientists. Read recent stories from our partners below.
 

03 APRIL 2021
Fenix for atomistic molecular dynamics simulations on COVID-19 related research
In Spain, Fenix resources have allowed a team at the BioExcel Center of Excellence in Barcelona to gain insights into the effect of COVID-19 variants on virus infectivity.
Read more (Fenix website)

19 MARCH 2021
Putting computing power together against SARS-CoV-2
European Scientists discover potential antiviral compounds through computational modeling
A team of the Exascalate4Cov19 consortium headed by HBP-scientist Prof. Giulia Rossetti in Germany reported a method to predict which molecules inhibit “Mpro”, the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. The scientists analysed the effect of millions of molecules against selected target structures of the virus and published the results in the journal ACS Pharmacological Translational Science. Now the follow up of the research, aimed at finding high affinity binding partners for this promising molecular target, will be enabled by Fenix. Read more (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies)

4 FEBRUARY 2021
State-of-the-art simulation methods against the SARS-CoV-2 virus
New computational work using Fenix has been performed by researchers at Sorbonne University in Paris to investigate important proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Read More (Fenix Website)

FENIX, EBRAINS and the HBP

Within the Human Brain Project (Interactive Computing E-Infrastructure ICEI), five leading European Supercomputing Centres work together to develop the set of e-infrastructure services that form the Fenix Infrastructure. Fenix provides access to the computing resources of BSC in Spain, CEA in France, CINECA in Italy, CSCS in Switzerland, and JSC in Germany.

Fenix powers the EBRAINS services for neuroscience, but is also available for computationally intensive research across disciplines – from drug discovery to technology innovation.

In the beginning of the pandemic, Fenix was opened for Covid-19 research. Recently, an additional call was opened on the specific Impact of Covid-19 on brain and mental health, to leverage the unique capabilities of EBRAINS for new insights on this pressing issue.

Working in concert, digital Infrastructures more and more drive scientific progress and collaboration across Europe.

Further Information:

APR. 30, 2020 Combating the coronavirus with computational modelling
(Interview with Giulia Rossetti and Paolo Carloni, Jülich)

APRIL 30, 2020 Using Fenix Resources for COVID-19 research

APRIL 28, 2020 Hunting for the molecular Achilles heel of Sars-CoV-2
(Interview with Rebecca Wade; Heidelberg)