FTMap software enables high school student research in drug discovery against flu, and gets him to Google Science Fair finals

Google Science Fair is an online science competition for 13-18 year old students around the globe sponsored by Google, Lego, CERN, National Geographic and Scientific American. This year one of the fifteen finalists selected across the world was Eric Chen (USA) with the project “Computer-aided Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Combat Flu Pandemic”. The key result of the research was identification a number of novel, potent endonuclease inhibitors, which can serve as leads for a new type of anti-flu medicine, effective against all influenza viruses including pandemic strains. One of the key elements of inhibitor discovery protocol was FTMap Server and Software developed by Vajda and Kozakov groups.

See Business Insider’s coverage of the story here.