Synthetic Proteins to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant events of our time. Since it began, scientists around the world have worked hard to create vaccines and treatments to slow the spread and lessen its impact. The virus uses a “spike” protein on its surface to get into human cells, making that protein a main target for new therapies. This protein has two main parts: one that attaches to our cells and another that helps the virus fuse with them. In this study, we are designing a new synthetic protein, called 5 Alpha-Helix (5α-H), to block both of these steps and stop the virus from entering cells.