Danish research discovery could drastically speed up the process of developing medicine to treat AIDS

A computer-based analysis developed by the University of Southern Denmark identifies chemical compounds that can inhibit the HIV virus

Danish researchers have made a significant breakthrough that will drastically speed up the process of developing new medicine to treat AIDS patients. 

The ever-evolving HIV virus eventually becomes resistant to nearly all treatments, but now a team from the University of Southern Denmark have developed an effective computer-based model that can identify chemical compounds that can treat AIDS – in weeks, not years.

The discovery could prolong the lives of millions of patients. 

Fast, accurate and promising
"Our work shows that computer-based analysis is an extremely fast, accurate and promising method when it comes to developing new drugs," Vasanthanathan Poongavanam, a postdoc at the Department of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Southern Denmark, told sdu.dk. 

Poongavanam, together with his colleague Jacob Kongsted, managed to screen half a million chemical compounds in just a few weeks.

They identified 14 that were able to stop the virus's ability to reproduce and these chemical compounds have since been sent to a team of Italian researchers at the University of Cagliari. 

TOP STORIES

Connect club

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

Sign up here

Career

  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Contact us

Jobs