Thread by @CrollTristan

As we all know by now, the most pressing current concern about the ongoing pandemic is the potential for emergence of immune-escape variants. With that in mind, I'm very happy to have had the chance to contribute to this important work: (1/6)
nature.com/articles/s4158…

A major multi-centre effort including @tylernstarr, @jbloom_lab, @Vir_Biotech, @jchodera, @ivyzhang__, @W_Glass and many others, this work assesses a wide panel of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike for potency, breadth and potential for immune escape. (2/6)

While the potency of many existing antibodies is dramatically reduced by mutations tolerated by the virus itself, the great news is that a few show high potency against most or all known sarbecoviruses. (3/6)

That suggests that their epitopes are trapped by evolution - that is, mutations that escape antibody binding also significantly reduce the fitness of the virus itself. Excellent news for ongoing clinical treatment and potentially for design of next-generation vaccines. (4/6)

In situations like the current pandemic time is of the essence, and the research must be done both fast and well. My contribution was to use ISOLDE to quickly finalise the reported RBD-antibody crystal structures starting from initial molecular replacement models. (5/6)

A great team effort, and a sign of hope for the future. While it seems unlikely this virus will ever go away completely, I'm more and more confident that this and similar work will help to relegate it to the status of "just another common cold". (fin)