![]() ![]() Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic Satchell is co-director of the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID), a consortium of eight institutions set up exactly for moments like this - to rapidly investigate the structures of emerging infectious agents. Right away, Mesecar contacted Karla Satchell, a microbiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He had spent 17 years studying coronaviruses, and the new virus’s genome looked very familiar. the next day, turned on the coffee pot and began blasting through the new genome looking for recognizable protein sequences. “I’d better get some sleep.” 11 January: 41 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide ![]() 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. 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. 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. In Texas, Jason McLellan instructed laboratory members to start assembling gene sequences from the viral genome. In Shanghai, China, Haitao Yang rallied a dozen graduate students to clear their schedules. In Minnesota, Fang Li stayed up all night analysing the new genome and drafting a manuscript. In Lübeck, Germany, Rolf Hilgenfeld stopped packing boxes for his retirement and started preparing buffers for crystallography. “We always knew that this was going to come back,” says Mesecar, head of biochemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Instantly, the researchers mobilized against a new adversary. The complete genome of a coronavirus causing a cluster of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, China, had just been posted online.Īround the world, similar notifications appeared on the devices of scientists who first crossed swords with coronaviruses in the 2003 outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and then again with MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2012. Lying in bed on the night of 10 January, scrolling through news on his smartphone, Andrew Mesecar got an alert. ![]()
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