A treasure map for stopping viruses: protein clues from a Canadian synchrotron

To copy themselves inside our cells, dangerous viruses grab hold of specific short stretches of our proteins — grips called SLiMs. Find the grips, and you can design ways to break them. An international team including James Omichinski and Haytham Wahba at the Université de Montréal has built a computer model that predicts where those grips hide, then used the Canadian Light Source synchrotron in Saskatchewan to image 18 candidate proteins and confirm the grips are really there. The work, published in PLOS Pathogens, studied haemorrhagic fever viruses including Ebola and Rift Valley fever — the second of which also strikes livestock and food chains. It is early, basic science, but it hands drug designers something they lacked: a map of where to aim.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation