Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have used a supercomputer to run thousands of simulations to analyse which drug compounds could stop the coronavirus from infecting host cells, CNN reported on Thursday (March 19).

Summit, an IBM supercomputer equipped with the "brain of AI (artificial intelligence)", identified 77 compounds that might be effective in preventing the virus from successfully spreading in a host.

This promising development could accelerate scientists' search for the most effective vaccine against the virus.

The world's fastest supercomputer was commissioned by the United States' Department of Energy in 2014 to solve the world's problems quickly, with one million times more power than the fastest laptop.

This is only a first step in finding a vaccine, scientists said. Experimental studies must follow this research to prove which chemicals work best in fighting the disease.