A research article May 12 in Science demonstrates the use of computational methods to design new antiviral proteins not found in nature, but capable of targeting specific surfaces of flu virus molecules. One goal of such protein design would be to block molecular mechanisms involved in cell invasion and virus reproduction. Computationally designed, surface targeting, antiviral proteins might also have diagnostic and therapeutic potential in identifying and fighting viral infections. The lead authors of the study are Sarel J. Fleishman and Timothy Whitehead of the University of Washington (UW) Department of Biochemistry, and Damian C. Ekiert from the Department of Molecular Biology and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. The senior authors are Ian Wilson from Scripps and David Baker from the UW and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
