Dmitry Korkin: Computational Biology of Coronavirus | Lex Fridman Podcast #90

The following is a conversation with Dmitry Korkin. He's a professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at WPI, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he specializes in bioinformatics of complex diseases, computational genomics, systems biology, and biomedical data analytics. I came across Dmitry's work when in February, his group used the viral genome of the COVID-19 to reconstruct the 3D structure of its major viral proteins and their interaction with the human proteins, in effect, creating a structural genomics map of the coronavirus and making this data open and available to researchers everywhere. We talked about the biology of COVID-19, SARS, and viruses in general, and how computational methods can help us understand their structure and function in order to develop antiviral drugs and vaccines. This conversation was recorded recently in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. For everyone feeling the medical, psychological, and financial burden of this crisis, I'm sending love your way. Stay strong. We're in this together. We'll beat this thing. This is the Artificial Intelligence Podcast. If you enjoy it, subscribe on YouTube, review it with five stars in Apple Podcasts, support it on Patreon, or simply connect with me on Twitter @lexfridman, spelled F-R-I-D-M-A-N. This show is presented by Cash App, the number one finance app in the App Store. When you get it, use code LEXPODCAST. Cash App lets you send money to friends, buy Bitcoin, and invest in the stock market with as little as one dollar. Since Cash App allows you to buy Bitcoin, let me mention that cryptocurrency in the context of the history of money is fascinating. I recommend A Cent of Money as a great book on this history. Debits and credits on ledgers started around 30,000 years ago, the U.S. dollar, created over 200 years ago, and Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, released just over 10 years ago. So given that history, cryptocurrency is still very much in its early days of development, but it's still aiming to, and just might, redefine the nature of money. So again, if you get Cash App from the App Store or Google Play, and use the code LEXPODCAST, you get ten dollars, and Cash App will also donate ten dollars to FIRST, an organization that is helping to advance robotics and STEM education for young people around the world. And now, here's my conversation with Dmitry Korkin. Do you find viruses terrifying or fascinating?

When I think about viruses, I think about them... I mean, I imagine them as those villains that do their work so perfectly well that's, that is impossible not to be fascinated with them.

So what do you imagine when you think about a virus? Do you imagine the individual, sort of these 100 nanometer particle things? Or do you imagine the whole pandemic, like society level? The... When you say, "The efficiency at which they do their work," do you think of viruses as the millions that im- in... that occupy a human body or a living organism, society level, like spreading as a pandemic, or do you think of the individual little guy?