ChBE Research Team to Investigate COVID-19
A University of Maryland (UMD) research group, led by Jeffery Klauda, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), has shifted support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH, intramural) with Dr. Bernard Brooks' lab to investigate the mechanism of COVID-19 upon binding to its target location in the human body. To that end, Dr. Klauda and Ph.D. Student Mahdi Ghorbani, are investigating the importance of every protein amino acid at the COVID-19 and ACE2 interface using computer simulations at the molecular scale. These computational techniques will help scientists understand the critical role of amino acids at the interface and to highlight crucial interactions that can be useful in drug development. From an evolutionary perspective, the team will also compare the dynamic mechanism of COVID-19 in comparison to SARS, which will help predict mutations in COVID-19 to help guide drug developers towards better solutions of combating future coronavirus mutations.
May 20, 2020 Prev Next |