Nature Publication on Coronavirus Research at Universität Hamburg

11 May 2021, by UHH Newsroom

Photo: The Coronavirus Structural Task Force / K. Nolte and SciStyle.com / T. Splettstößer

The coronavirus model developed by the Coronavirus Structural Task Force is the most exact model developed in the world to date. It shows, for example, that the virus is not completely round, and shows the random placement of the spikes.

Fighting the coronavirus has changed the way the international scientific community works together and intensified collaboration. Dr. Andrea Thorn leads an international research group at Universität Hamburg that is improving molecular models from across the world to enable the development of pharmaceuticals. The May issue of the Nature Structural & Molecular Biology journal reports on the team’s work. Andrea Thorn works in the new "Hamburg Advanced Research Centre for Bioorganic Chemistry“ (HARBOR) and cooperates closely with CUI scientist Prof. Arwen Pearson.

To develop vaccines and new medications for the coronavirus, one must first decipher how it works. This is a task occupying thousands of researchers across the globe. However, models often only show the “virion,” that is, the shape the virus has when it enters the human body, a form which only has 4 protein molecules. Once it has infected a lung cell however, it creates 24 additional protein molecules. Structural biologist Dr. Andrea Thorn is researching how these proteins are constructed, how they manage to cripple the immune system, and convert human cells to “virus factories.”

Andrea Thorn put together a team of international researchers to create the Coronavirus Structural Task Force for her research over a year ago. Today, this teams includes 26 researchers from 7 countries, with the group being coordinated from Universität Hamburg. The team describes its work in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology as testing and improving the molecular structures of the virus being measured in experiments across the world.

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