2020 Sinica Open House Activity

COVID-19, infected by SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) earlier this year have caused global damages in more than half million deaths and > 20 million report cases.  Vaccine development is indeed urgent to provide immunity to the heathy population and prevent further viral spreading.  In contrast, therapeutics for infected patients are not well developed. Current medical solution counts on supportive treatment or alternative drugs such as Remdesivir.  Research scientists in the Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC) have dedicated in drug discovery of SARS-CoV-2 focusing on two viral protease proteases. The current progress indicates the developed inhibitors are functional and could be a potential direction as therapeutic drugs. This talk will introduce the basics of SARS coronavirus, function of the two protein proteases and discovered drugs.