Home Department: undeclared
Mentor: Soichi Wakatsuki (Structural Biology and Photon Science)

“Potent and Selective Covalent Inhibition of the Papain-Like Protease from SARS-CoV-2”

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Papain-like protease, or PLpro, is a viral cysteine protease found in SARS‑CoV‑2, vital to the virus’s replication. Therefore, inhibiting PLpro is a viable way of treating COVID-19. However, effective inhibitors of PLpro may also inhibit deubiquitinases (DUBs), a protein class that regulates protein function and which includes numerous cysteine proteases. Sybren’s project will be to computationally predict and experimentally test potential PLpro inhibitors for selectivity against a panel of DUBs. The goal is to identify PLpro inhibitors used as a COVID-19 treatment that are safe for human use.