One of the biggest unknowns about the coronavirus is how changing
seasons will affect its spread. Physicists from the University of Utah
have received the university’s first COVID-19-related grant to tackle
the question.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a Rapid Response
Research (RAPID) grant to Michael Vershinin and Saveez Saffarian of the
U’s Department of Physics & Astronomy to study the structure of the
SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus strain at the center of the pandemic. The
physicists will create individual synthetic coronavirus particles
without a genome, making the virus
incapable of infection or replication. The researchers will test how
the structure of the coronavirus withstands changes in humidity and
temperature, and under what conditions the virus falls apart.
The results will help public health officials understand how the
virus behaves under various environmental conditions, including in the
changing seasons and in microclimates such as air-conditioned offices.
“We’re making a faithful replica of the virus packaging that holds
everything together. The idea is to figure out what makes this virus
fall apart, what makes it tick, what makes it die,” said Vershinin,
assistant professor of physics and astronomy and co-principal
investigator of the grant. “This is not a vaccine. It’s won’t solve the
crisis, but it will hopefully inform policy decisions going forward.”
The researchers searched the fully-sequenced SARS-COV-2 genome that
was published in January and zeroed in on the genes responsible for the
structural integrity of the virus. They are now synthesizing these genes
in living cells and allowing their proteins to assemble into virus
particles.
“Coronavirus spreads similarly to the influenza virus—as small mucus
droplets suspended in the air. The predominate idea is that viruses lose
infectivity because the particles lose structural integrity,” said
Saffarian. “The physics of how the droplets evolve in different
temperature and humidity conditions affect how infectious it is.”
The RAPID funding program allows NSF to quickly review proposals in
response to research on urgent issues, such as global pandemics.
“This application of sophisticated physics instruments and methods to
understand how the 2019 coronavirus will behave as the weather changes
is a clear example of how our investment in basic research years later
prepares us for a response to a crisis that impacts not only our
society, but also the whole world,” said Krastan Blagoev, program
director in NSF’s Division of Physics.
One from many
At the onset of the coronavirus, Vershinin and Saffarian dove deep
into the scientific literature to learn as much as possible about corona
and related viruses, such as influenza. They realized that many studies
looked at the spread of influenza on an epidemiological level. There
are fewer answers about how climate and specific conditions effect a
single virus particle. Both researchers bring decades of experience
working in the nanoscale. Vershinin lab’s specialty is using optical tweezers, a tool that enables him to probe individual molecules just a few atoms across.
“It’s often compared with the tractor beam from ‘Star Trek.’ You just
use light to reach in and apply force to manipulate things,” Vershinin
said.
Saffarian’s lab focuses on viruses that, like coronavirus, contain RNA strands. His lab utilizes many tools to track the behavior of individual virus particles, including HIV.
The researchers are members of the Center for Cell and Genome
Sciences in the College of Science, where scientists who apply physics,
chemistry and biology work alongside each other and can form
collaborations rapidly—a key advantage in the fight against the virus.
“You don’t just gain the insight that you want by looking at the
virus on a large scale. Looking at a single virus particle is the key to
being able to tease out what’s going on,” Vershinin said. “Modern
biology and biophysics allows us to ask these questions in a way we
never could have before.”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-physicists-coronavirus-particles-temperature-humidity.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.