Newly funded: Clarifying the coronavirus's bind to human cells

Coronaviruses infect humans by binding to specific proteins, known as receptors, on human cell surfaces. Researchers from the University of Minnesota, led by Associate Professor Fang Li, PhD, recently became the first to use x-ray crystallography, the “gold-standard” method of structural biology at atomic resolution, to map out the 3D structure of a protein on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that binds to its human receptor. This information not only facilitates a better understanding of the infectivity of the virus but also sheds light on its animal origin and provides guidance on vaccine and antiviral drug designs. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and was recently published in Nature. The Li Lab has decades of experience investigating coronavirus infection and evolution and developing novel strategies to prevent and treat coronavirus infection. Next, the research team plans to use structural information from this study to develop antibody drugs and vaccines that specifically target the binding of SARS-CoV-2 to its human receptor.