The University of Edinburgh is teaming up with IBM for a five-year research project into drugs that can fight the HIV virus.

IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer will be used to run simulations that will help to speed up the development of new drugs. The scheme targets the swift mutation of the HIV virus, which quickly negates the effects of medication.

“Our early results are promising, showing that we can use computers to simulate which molecules can stop the HIV virus from infecting humans, which drug makers could then use to more rapidly develop those drugs,” said Jason Crain, researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s school of physics.

“This is a new approach to drug design – we are using sophisticated algorithms coupled with experimental techniques to design improved molecular therapies, and we can capitalise on enormous computing power to do this efficiently and rationally.”

Under the scheme, scientists at the Scottish university will co-operate with IBM staff at the TJ Watson Research Centre, located near New York.