UGENE Helps in the Fight Against Coronavirus

Biologists and medical professionals worldwide have been working intensely for several months to tackle the pandemic caused by the notorious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which leads to the serious illness COVID-19. We feel connected to this effort, as scientific papers are emerging where UGENE is being used for research related to the development of potential vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. This task is incredibly challenging.

For instance, American scientists have studied the enhancing (yes, enhancing!) effect of potential antibodies on the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Specifically, they compared how similar glycoprotein peptides from various known human and animal coronaviruses are. The homology (similarity) of these peptides was studied using UGENE.

The conclusions from this study are important not only for vaccine development but also for using convalescent plasma from recovered patients and for targeted therapy with monoclonal antibodies.