Computer model of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein – with which the virus binds to cells
12 April 2020
Know Your Enemy
The fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) is a united global effort. While medical staff and healthcare scientists work to treat patients, physicists and computer scientists are helping virologists to understand the virus, the first step towards designing drugs to slow its spread, and vaccines – inhibited versions of the virus injected to help to prepare the body’s immune defences. Here a supercomputer runs a simulation of a tree-like protein on COVID-19’s surface (pink). The virus uses these ‘spike proteins’ to infect human cells, and these computer models – simulating their microscopic machinery – may suggest weaknesses or structural details that new drug compounds can exploit. As labs around the world rally to the cause, resources like this will surely help their tireless work.
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- Image by Rommie Amaro, UCSD
- Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA
- Image copyright held by the original authors
- TACC Press Release, March 2020
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