Advancements in protein structure research will lead to a new way of doing medicine: computational biologist

Prof. Janet Thornton.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

We have come a long way in understanding the structure of proteins, but in translating that into new medicines we are just starting, said renowned computational biologist Janet Thornton in an interaction with The Hindu.

Lesson from COVID-19

“We saw with the COVID-19 virus how quickly the structures of the spike protein, which was the basis for part of the vaccine, could be characterised. I think we’ve come a long way in that understanding. Translating that into new medicines probably is only just starting,” she said.

“Today, when there are general patients, very often they are treated for the symptoms and not for the cause. But I think there’ll be a new way of doing medicine. Health services across the world are struggling now with demand. I think that will change because once we have enough data, we can improve the services given,” she added.

A pioneer in structural bioinformatics and Director Emeritus of the European Bioinformatics Institute, Prof. Thornton was in Bengaluru to deliver a lecture organised by Shibhulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives (SFPI), in collaboration with TIFR.

“A doctor usually operates on his own experience which is somewhat limited. If we could gather these data together then I think there is potential for more accurate prognosis and diagnosis,” she pointed out.

While more data is critical to improve research efficiency, Prof. Thornton, who is on the board of Health Data Research U.K. (a U.K. government-funded organisation to coordinate health data and make it available for research), acknowledged that there are challenges to making data open and accessible.

Nature of data

“Health data is quite different. It’s very personal and there are ethical concerns. In my opinion, it’s going to take many more years to really coordinate health data and make it accessible,” she said.  On the other side are conflicts in terms of commercial interests, she added.

Nevertheless, terming data “a critical health infrastructure”, Prof. Thornton noted that it is important to make good clean data from hospitals available to train AI programmes. She further added that the impact of the research will extend to fields beyond physiology including agriculture and green chemistry and could help even in tackling climate change.