Pinning Down the Virus

While administrative and teaching staff responded to the practical realities of the pandemic, Homerton researchers were quickly immersed in the characteristics of the virus itself.

Dr Julia Kenyon, Director of Studies in pre-clinical Medicine and Biological Natural Sciences, is a virologist whose usual focus is on HIV and dengue fever. When the University closed for nonCovid related research in late March, she could have continued working on her pre-existing projects from home, but felt compelled to redirect her attention.

“I had so many results in play, and a lot of work that wasn’t lab based, so I didn’t have to put anything on hold. But this is a virus that no one understood, and we were allowed to keep the lab open to explore it.”

Under normal circumstances, Julia and her team work on relatively self-contained projects, but the challenge of Covid-19 demanded their collaborative efforts.

“We’ve been looking at how the viral genome is structured. It’s the genetic code of the virus itself, but it’s also like a scaffold, holding different parts of the virus in place. It’s like a knot, rather than a line, and its structure changes during the viral life cycle. When we can visualise those structural changes, we can work out how the virus might be vulnerable to new drugs.”

When the first cases of Covid-19 began to be reported in China, Julia was quick to recognise the potential international threat.

“I remember saying to Penny (Barton, the Senior Tutor) in January, that we might be facing a pandemic, and could need to look at developing our online teaching sooner than we were planning to. But I didn’t think it would take over the UK as quickly as it did, as I thought we’d be more effective in responding to what was happening elsewhere.”

Looking ahead at when students return to College this autumn, there is a balance to be struck between Homerton’s responsibility to protect its community, and the centrality of normal social interaction to the student experience.

“We need to recognise that quarantine and social distancing while trying to make friends isn’t a great mix. I’m very mindful of the fact that young people don’t bear the brunt of the illness and have really put their lives on hold. We need to make sure that the steps we ask them to take are necessary and effective.”

Academia can be, as Julia points out, “very niche”. Usually, she will be working on a highly specific aspect of the viral genome, and accepts that “the chances that what I’m doing at any given time will make a difference are vanishingly small, but collectively so many scientists are trying out so many ideas that one is likely to be successful.”

Dr Julia Kenyon

The difference at the moment is that “scientists worldwide have dropped their existing focus to work on Covid. It’s much more collaborative. It’s nice to feel you’re making a difference.”