Project Description

The Covid-19 pandemic has been detrimental to populations worldwide. With no cure to date and the longevity of vaccines still not fully understood, one of the main obstacles hindering progress on both these fronts has been the novelty of the virus and hence the lack of knowledge pertaining to its structure, stability, and interaction mechanisms with human host cells. For that reason, studies that provide information regarding all the above have become instrumental to the next steps of combatting the virus.

In this project we are studying the binding of the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of Covid-19, to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) using molecular dynamics (MD). The goals of the project include studying the interaction of the virus with the receptor structure specific to the Egyptian population, which will be obtained by utilizing information from the Egyptian Genome Reference (EgyptRef). Following the study of the virus-receptor binding, MD and molecular docking will be used to screen for potential viral inhibitors.

Collaborators:

Dr. Anwar Abd Elnaser (The American University in Cairo, Egypt)