The current emerging coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan demonstrates that we need drugs for emerging viruses and especially for emerging coronaviruses. Below, we tell the story behind our recent paper on a broad-spectrum antiviral which may be able to fill this very important public health need.

Deadly coronaviruses have emerged recently and no vaccines or therapeutics are available to combat them. To understand how these viruses attach to and enter our cells, we determined the structure of the molecule initiating infection in complex with various sialic acid derivatives.