Is Simulation Biology the Next Era of the Synthetic Biology Revolution?
My laptop showed a pair of floating hands pulling up a screen in a virtual world. “And searching the PubChem chemical molecule database we can find the 2D structure for many small molecules” explained Steve McCloskey, founder of a startup called Nanome which builds virtual reality tools for scientists. Seconds later, the familiar 2D drawing of atom bonds showed by lines started wobbling around in different directions. “We are now running an energy minimization function to find the predicted 3D shape of this molecule”, Steve went on to explain. Another voice chimed in, “Is this the small molecule that binds to the COVID-19 protease?”. “No”, answered Steve, “but that’s a good segway into our next example”. Another floating screen was pulled up in their virtual world, followed by the appearance of the 3D model of the COVID-19 protease.
My mind started to wander as Steve pointed out a pocket in the Covid-19 protein with a small molecule slotted in. The moment seemed surreal, sitting in my home viewing a public webinar in the middle of a pandemic, as a group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and bloggers sat around in a virtual room probing the giant model of the viral protein. I thought about how different this was from a pensive Charles Darwin sitting on a Galápagos beach, notebook in hand as he observed wildlife and thought…
