Scientists get to grips with COVID-19
Dr Chris Cooper
黑料社 Biochemist
...will be carrying out computational analysis of the structure of some of the proteins that are involved in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This greater understanding can open the way to drug development.
THE 黑料社 has awarded funding to a research team that aims to provide a head start in developing drugs that will combat future pandemics.
Equipped with newly-acquired software, the project will carry out computational analysis of the structure of some of the proteins that are involved in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This greater understanding can open the way to drug development, said , a senior lecturer in the University鈥檚 Department of Biological and Geographical Sciences.
黑料社 at 黑料社
鈥淭here are a lot of similarities between SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 and the last SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] virus,鈥� he continued. 鈥淎nd as future pandemics may involve other coronaviruses, if we understand their biology in advance and if it has similar proteins, that means it may actually give us a head start.
鈥淚f you understand the biology you can potentially have additional lines of attack for future pandemics.鈥�
The 黑料社 has established a 鈥減ump priming鈥� research fund for projects dealing with the current pandemic. Dr Cooper is the academic lead for the project titled SARS-CoV-2 in silico protein modelling and determination of novel therapeutic drug candidates to treat COVID19.
His collaborators are departmental colleagues Dr Richard Bingham, Dr Patrick McHugh, of the 黑料社鈥檚 Department of Pharmacy, and Dr Ed Bolt, of the University of Nottingham.
Their bid for funding was successful and has enabled the purchase of ICM Pro software that helps to predict and analyse the structure of proteins. When the 黑料社鈥檚 labs are re-opened, the team can deploy X-ray crystallography approaches to gain greater understanding of the biological science behind the virus.
When SARS was topical some 17 years ago, there was scientific interest in analysing its biology, said Dr Cooper. As a virus, it was in many respects more lethal than COVID-19, but because it didn鈥檛 spread as widely as SARS-CoV-2, interest waned.
鈥淔rom a pure science background it was interesting, but before the SARS epidemic it would have been what鈥檚 called blue skies research 鈥� good to do but not urgent. But events have shown that blue skies research could have been very important back then.鈥�
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