NEIDL Researchers Collaborate on AI-Driven Approach to Identify Potential New Ebola Drug Targets
July 24, 2025
In a new publication in Nature Microbiology, researchers at the NEIDL and their collaborators at the Broad Institute, MIT, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Washington University in St. Louis employed a new method to identify human genes that, when silenced, impair the Ebola virus’s ability to infect host cells. The findings have the potential to inform new drug targets not just for Ebola, but for related filoviruses such as the Sudan and Marburg viruses, for which there are no approved treatments.
The approach, known as optical pooled screening, was developed at the Broad Institute and combines powerful imaging, perturbational screening, and machine learning to capture detailed changes in large numbers of cells at once while also detailing how genetic elements influence those changes. The Broad researchers specifically partnered with the laboratory of NEIDL Director Robert Davey to utilize the technique on the Ebola virus. Davey is co-senior author on the research, and NEIDL microbiologist J.J. Patten is co-first author.
The research team ultimately identified hundreds of host proteins that, when silenced, affected overall infection level, including many necessary for the Ebola virus to enter a cell. They also found genes that, when knocked out, prevented Ebola infection from progressing or altered the balance between viral RNA and protein. All in all, the work provided a variety of intriguing options for further research aimed at understanding the Ebola infection process and, critically, developing therapeutic approaches to thwart it.
For more detail, check out the publication and see a recap on the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine site.
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