As scientists, we often think we understand a virus—its structure, its tricks, the way it moves through the body. But every ...

The Remarkable and Mysterious Coronavirus Genome The SARS-CoV-2 genome is a strand of RNA that is about 29,900 bases long--near the limit for RNA viruses. Influenza has about 13,500 bases ...

The model can predict which mutations are likely to occur by looking for mutations that cause only small changes in the protein's structure and function. This is important because, in most cases, ...

But it was long unclear whether RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, perform a similar stunt, Wenbo Li, a biochemist at the University of Texas’ Health Science Center, tells The Scientist. Now, in a ...

More information: Shun Nakamura et al, Structure-guided engineering of a mutation-tolerant inhibitor peptide against variable SARS-CoV-2 spikes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025).

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for effective therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2. Although vaccines helped control the spread of the virus, the emergence of new variants ...