BEIJING, Nov. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc.
(NASDAQ:BIDU and HKEX:9888), a leading AI company with strong
Internet foundation, and Sanofi, a leading biopharmaceutical
company focused on human health, have entered into an agreement to
integrate Baidu's messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) design
optimization platform, LinearDesign, into Sanofi's product design
pipeline. Under the agreement, Sanofi will leverage the
LinearDesign platform to contribute to the optimization of mRNA
sequences for human therapeutic and preventive uses. This agreement
marks a milestone for Baidu to use its strengths in computational
biology to optimize mRNA vaccine and therapy designs in real-world
pharmaceutical practice beyond Covid-19.
"The emerging mRNA technology has rapidly advanced the science
of vaccine and drug development for infectious diseases like
COVID-19," said Tian Wu, Baidu
Corporate Vice President. "We have already seen that combining
mRNA with computational biology tools makes the process quicker and
more effective and has the potential to further transform drug
discovery. We are honored to partner with Sanofi, one of the
world's leading biopharmaceutical companies, to bring life-saving
mRNA therapies and vaccines to the global healthcare
community."
While mRNA has proved to be an innovative technology for vaccine
development, instability remains a major limitation that affects
the storage, distribution, and efficacy of mRNA vaccines.
LinearDesign is a novel algorithm developed by Baidu researchers in
2020 specifically for mRNA sequence design. Experiments both in
vitro and in vivo have demonstrated the effectiveness of
LinearDesign in improving the stability and immunogenicity of Spike
protein-encoding mRNA.
LinearDesign was inspired by two algorithms previously developed
by Baidu and its collaborators: LinearFold, the world's fastest
algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction, and
LinearPartition, the world's fastest base pairing probability
prediction algorithm. The LinearDesign program is part of Baidu's
ongoing effort to develop innovative computational biology
technology aiming to accelerate novel drug discovery.
About Baidu:
Founded in 2000, Baidu's mission is to make the complicated
world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company
with strong Internet foundation, trading on the NASDAQ under "BIDU"
and HKEX under "9888." One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A
ordinary shares.
Media Contact
intlcomm@baidu.com
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.