DNA origami-based virus traps – an explainer of a broad-spectrum antiviral for non-biologists

This project won the "Simple Explainer" prize on our Pandemics (Sept 2024) course. The text below is an excerpt from the final project.

Broad-spectrum antivirals, as the name suggests, are a type of pharmaceutical that can be readily employed against a broad spectrum of viruses, without having to undergo testing and development that can take years and years. The hope with such technologies is that in the case of an emerging viral threat, these antivirals can be rolled out fast and effectively, and thereby prevent an endemic turning into a pandemic. DNA origami-based virus traps are an innovative approach to fight viruses of different classes, shapes, and variants. Their research was funded by the German federal agency for breakthrough innovation, SPRIN-D, in the framework of a research challenge competition for broad-spectrum antivirals. However, viruses are quirky little biological machines, and it is important to understand how they fit into the biological world in order to fathom how such a broad-spectrum antiviral could work.

This explainer aims to present a tangible real-world example by first introducing core concepts of molecular biology and then going into the details of the antiviral. It is aimed at people who do not have a strong biological background, and are not trained at distilling the underlying concepts from research papers that are dense with data and complicated graphs. I used primary data and graphs from scientific publications, but tried to explain them in a more tangible way. This might sometimes be at odds with how figures, graphs, or secondary literature is usually described and cited, but in my opinion comes at the advantage for the interested but less trained reader.

Full project

You can view the full project here.