It's a new year of breakthroughs, discoveries, and advancements.

We're kicking off 2021 with an important update.

SWRI scientist Dr. Jonathan Bowman is on the front lines of life-saving COVID research,

the latest on his team's work and what they've uncovered since our last discussion.

That's next on this episode of Technology Today.

We live with technology, science, engineering, and the results of innovative research every day. Now,

let's understand it better. You're listening to the Technology Today podcast presented by Southwest Research Institute.

Hello and welcome to technology today. I'm Lisa Fenia. We start the new year with new hope in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

With the U.S. death toll climbing toward 400,000, effective prevention and treatment is a top priority for the nation's scientists and researchers.

Already millions have received a COVID vaccine and there's been solid progress in finding treatments for patients already infected.

SWRI staff scientist Dr. Jonathan Bowman is leading a team screening drug compounds to find potential COVID therapies.

We spoke to him in April, and he's back with an update on this developing topic.

Thank you for joining us, Jonathan.

Yes, I'm happy to be here.

So I wanted to have you back because this research is really moving quickly.

It seems every week there are new developments.

So back in April, you had started the process of screening millions of drug compounds that could potentially fight COVID.

What has developed since then?

Sure.

So in that time, we were able to select from those millions of compounds, a subset

or part of those that we predicted to be safe. And so that, you know, the biggest thing, there's probably lots of compounds that could be

antiviral. The only problem is that they might be also toxic. So the margin of safety, you know,

...