Dr. Jordi Guillem-Martí is investigating new ways to prevent COVID infection and multiplication

Dr. Jordi Guillem-Martí, BBT's MSCA researcher, is currently at Baker's lab (Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, USA), in a 1 year research stay contemplated in his ENGAGE: ENGineering extracellular matrix-based de novo proteins with high Affinity to Growth factors for Enhancing bone regeneration (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 Proposal: 838621 - ENGAGE). 

Nowadays, Dr. Guillem-Marti is designing proteins with the ability to bind to receptors present at the surface of our cells with the goal to block the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with those receptors, and hence prevent the infection and multiplication of the viruses. These proteins are being designed in Baker's lab by de novo computational methodologies, which use basic principles of protein folding to design proteins that do not exist in nature. Then, possible interactions of these de novo designed proteins with the targets are computationally calculated, selecting those with better interaction scores. The final designed proteins will be tested against purified cell surface proteins and the resulting candidates will be tested in humanized mice infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Covid-2, the novel coronavirus disease, is produced by SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus with high rate of infection. Recent global research efforts have identified several receptors in the surface of our cells that such coronaviruses are using, interacting with proteins of their surface, for infecting the cells, and once inside multiply and then infect other cells.