AI Approach to Curing Deformed wing virus in Honey Bees

Deformed wing virus is a leading cause of 40% annual honey bee colony loss. This loss putsat risk $34B worth of economic activity and high-value crops such as honey almonds blueberriesand apples. The goal of this SBIR Phase II project is to identify a lead chemical that can bedeveloped into a cure or treatmet for Deformed wing disease.Our approach is to use artificial intelligence algorithms to predict the binding of 10M smallchemicals to active sites of Deformed wing virus proteins. We expect this approach to increase by10000X the likelihood that physical screen of 90 chemicals will identify a chemical that can befurther developed through medicinal chemistry into a potent and safe inhibitor of Deformed wingvirus.The Phase I project has exceeded its goals. The team has in hand 90 chemicals of diversestructure ready for physical screen that are predicted to bind to the active site of the essentialDeformed wing virus 3C protease enzyme.The goals of this Phase II project are: for scientists at partner USDA-ARS Bee ResearchLab (Beltsville MD) to identify a lead chemical by way of physical screen of the 90 chemicals inlive honey bees and biochemical assay; through artificial intelligence and medicinal chemistry forpartner Atomwise Inc. (San Francisco CA) to further develop lead chemical potency and safety;and for Granite Point Ventures LLC the SBIR applicant and drug sponsor to achieve project goalsusing its scientific project management and commercialization expertise.