Computer Virus

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus of the moment, but there’s a long list of ones that might jump from animals to humans and cause deadly outbreaks in the future. Thankfully, scientists are already investigating ways to treat and vaccinate should such an outbreak occur. Because the catalogues of viruses and candidate treatments are long, researchers use computers to lighten the load. Using molecular modelling software, they see which compounds are likely to interact with and inhibit a given virus, and can thus narrow the list of ones to test in the laboratory. The image shows a computer model of a Nipah virus protein (green) with a compound (purple) bound to the region responsible for infecting cells. Nipah viruses circulate in animals and rarely infect humans, but when they do it often has deadly consequences. With that in mind, it’s good to know scientists are already scanning the virus models for weaknesses.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from the Southwest Research Institute
• Southwest Research Institute, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, UT Health San Antonio, and The University of Texas at San Antonio
• Image copyright held by Southwest Research Institute
• From a Texas Biomedical Research Institute, press release, October 2021