"The fitness landscape of HIV is currently not well understood…with our landscape, we can predict whether different sets of mutations lead to fit or unfit viruses”, said Matthew Mckay, Hari Halilela Associate Professor of ECE, one of the researchers in the international research team led by HKUST.  The work also involved Raymond Louie, as a lead author of their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), who is a Research Assistant Professor of ECE at HKUST.   

 

By using a computational framework and machine learning tools the team developed, the scientists were able to identify a fitness landscape – a map that shows how it mutates, and its ability to assemble and replicate itself in the body.