Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, our simulations of the coronavirus spike protein led us to predict that it opens up far more widely than previously thought. This opening reveals ‘cryptic’ surfaces where therapeutics could potentially bind that one wouldn’t have otherwise thought were viable targets.
Now, new cryoEM experiments from the former student who led that work confirm our prediction!
Working with a team at Generate Bio, former Bowman-lab member Max Zimmerman helped design an antibody that targets one of the cryptic surfaces revealed by our simulations. The team solved multiple structures of their antibody bound to the coronavirus spike protein. Impressively, these structures show how the spike opens up, allowing the antibody to bind. You can read more here.
Seeing these structures experimentally is a strong testament to the predictive power of Folding@home!