Elettra at the Kick-off meeting of AVITHRAPID project to develop a pipeline of preclinical antivirals

On February 13th and 14th, the kick-off meeting of the AVITHRAPID project (Antiviral Therapeutics for Rapid Response Against Pandemic Infectious Diseases) was held at the Istituto Nazionale Malattie Infettive "Lazzaro Spallanzani" in Rome. Paola Storici, senior scientist in Structural Biology and Head of the Protein Facility, represented Elettra at the event.

The AVITHRAPID consortium, established within the European Horizon research program, is coordinated by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and includes Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and other 17 prestigious European research institutions. The consortium aims to develop a pipeline of small molecule-based antiviral agents that can be rapidly produced and used to combat emerging infectious diseases. To validate this approach, the project also aims to test a small molecule against the Zika virus in a clinical trial.

Elettra will contribute to the development of pre-clinical pipeline of small molecule-based antiviral inhibitors by performing experimental research activity that will exploit the Protein Production facility, the Crystallization suite, and the XRD2 beamline of Elettra. Under supervision of Paola Storici, the Elettra team will determine and analyze the structure of viral drug targets and their interaction with the small-molecules developed by the consortium to support the Structural Based Drug Discovery effort.