The Sprint to Solve Coronavirus Protein Structures–And Disarm them with Drugs

May 15, 2020

(Nature) – Within 24 hours, a network of structural biologists around the world had redirected their labs towards a single goal — solving the protein structures of a deadly, rapidly spreading new contagion. To do so, they would need to sift through the 29,811 RNA bases in the virus’s genome, seeking out the instructions for each of its estimated 25–29 proteins. With those instructions in hand, the scientists could recreate the proteins in the lab, visualize them and then, hopefully, identify drug compounds to block them or develop vaccines to incite the immune system against them.