Eni’s supercomputer HPC5 to help in Covid-19 research

Italian energy firm Eni has made its new supercomputing infrastructure available for use in the fight against Covid-19.

The energy major has partnered with European researchers to help in the analysis of virus.

Eni first unveiled the supercomputing system HPC5 in February this year. The HPC5 system is an essential tool to accelerate Eni’s transition towards the energy of the future.

The company has offered its HPC5 supercomputer and its molecular modelling skills for the research as part of the European EXSCALATE4CoV project.

The project, which is aimed at identifying drugs to combat the global pandemic, is being led by biopharmaceutical firm Dompé.

Eni is also working in partnership with Cineca, a non-profit research group that includes universities and the government.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “During a global emergency such as this, we must mobilize all available resources to overcome the challenges ahead. We are proud to contribute to finding solutions to this challenge facing humanity.”

As part of the project, the joint team will carry out dynamic molecular simulations of viral proteins related to the Covid-19 strain. The team will then identify the effective pharmaceutical components among the available 10,000 components in the databases.

Following this, the joint team will carry out an activity for the research of new specific anti-viral molecules via screening of billions of structures.

Cineca supercomputing department director Sanzio Bassini said: “We thank Eni for its valuable contribution, and we are confident that this collaboration will significantly contribute to achieve a result in the next future as well as providing a model for the recovery.”

Last month, Eni and Algerian state-owned company Sonatrach completed the construction of a gas pipeline in the onshore Berkine basin of Algeria.