An international team of scientists led by Professor Christiane Schaffitzel from the University of Bristol’s School of Biochemistry and Professor Imre Berger from the Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, has discovered a druggable pocket in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that could be used to stop the virus from infecting human cells.
The team used a powerful imaging technique, electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM), and high-performance cloud computing provided by the technology giant Oracle, to analyse the structure and composition of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein at near atomic resolution.
The researchers say their findings, published in the journal Science, are a potential ‘game changer’ in defeating the current pandemic and that small molecule anti-viral drugs developed to target the pocket they discovered could help eliminate COVID-19.
Find out more: bristol.ac.uk/max-planck
