vaccines and treatments at record speed, what we are learning about SARS-CoV-2 at the APS will help fight not only this outbreak, but future ones.” Regarding APS staff at Argonne, Joachimiak said, “We have extremely experienced people who have been working with me for more than 20 years. We work as a team, we know the system, we have the best possible technology and the most dedicated people.” Joachimiak’s team has also been providing proteins and crystals for other research groups at more than 20 different labs around the world, assisting those without the facilities to synthesize and crystallize proteins. The philosophy of cooperation within the center extends outside of it as well “Everything is interconnected,” he said. Joachimiak said his team has also been solving structures of complexes with inhibitors, including various drug candidates that can stop the virus from attaching itself to human cells, or replicating itself. Other sites in the center have been working on vaccine candidates and antibodies, many using APS data to look for weaknesses in the virus’s defenses. In addition to work centered at the APS facility, Argonne also has stateof-the-art supercomputing. Indeed, Argonne supercomputer researchers have been providing insights that helped form the foundation for the vaccines we now have. At the same time, other computer scientists have been modeling the further progression of the epidemic so that supply chains of vaccines have been able to get the approved vaccines out to the medical community as quickly and efficiently as possible. Argonne also collaborates with the University of Chicago through the Howard Taylor Ricketts Laboratory (HTRL) on the Argonne campus. The mission of the HTRL is to carry out cutting-edge translational research on biodefense-related agents, as well as the causative agents of emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19.
The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines would not have been possible without years of research into similar viruses. Work done at the Advanced Photon Source between 2009 and 2013 led to an increase in effectiveness of several of the vaccines.
At HTRL, John Bivona is the point man tasked with explaining to organizations all over the U.S. how to deal with COVID-19. He explains to research, clinical, production, testing, educational, developmental and other work environments how the virus is transmitted. He also shares his detailed knowledge of regulatory guidelines and standards impacting work with infectious agents and materials and safe methods for manipulating, studying, producing and containing infectious microorganisms and biological hazards.
All in all, many aspects of Argonne have been making significant contributions to conquering COVID-19. For more information on how Argonne has contributed to bringing COVID-19 under control, go to www.anl.gov/news
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