Grant: Operating Grant

The emergence and re-emergence of new or altered viruses, threat of viral pandemics and widespread antiviral resistance necessitates the urgent development of a broad-spectrum strategy for viral infection. Class I viral glycoproteins are the only virally-encoded protein on the surface of virions, and mediate cellular attachment and fusion. Hence, this class of proteins are a natural target for antiviral therapeutics and vaccines. We will employ a series of proven and innovative techniques ranging from virology, biochemistry, structural biology, biophysics and high-throughput screening, to understand the structural diversity of viral fusion glycoproteins and to identify novel inhibitors that are effective against a diverse set of viruses. Ultimately, we anticipate our work will have the potential to reveal general model principles in the fusion of pH-independent viruses, such as HIV-1. Moreover, this work will provide a blueprint for the development of antiviral inhibitors that are active for a diverse set of viruses.