Australia enlists particle accelerator in COVID-19 fight

(AFP)

Australian scientists are using the most important accelerator within the hemisphere to assist fast-track the search for a vaccine against COVID-19, researchers said Tuesday.

The Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne uses intense X-rays emitted by electrons coursing through the accelerator to look at key proteins within the virus, programme director Andrew Peele told AFP.

Acting as a sort of microscope, the accelerator lets the researchers construct atomic-level 3-D maps of the proteins in order that they can develop drugs that bind to the virus, potentially preventing or treating the disease.

"We shine the sunshine on the proteins and therefore the light that scatters off them tells us where every atom within the (COVID-19)protein molecule is," Peele said.

"You got to know what the protein seems like so you'll design a drug to connect thereto ," he added.

"It's like designing a key for a lock, you would like to understand the size of the keyhole."

Researchers from round the world have sent the Melbourne team dozens of sample of proteins which they think might bind with the COVID-19 virus during a way that would minimise or protect from the disease, Peele said.

"Using our technology, within five minutes you'll understand why a drug does or doesn't add attaching to a COVID-19 protein," Peele said, likening the method to completing a puzzle .

The government-funded project hopes its fast-tracking technology will shorten the traditional development time for effective vaccines.

Scientists round the world are racing to develop vaccines and coverings for COVID-19, which has became a raging pandemic that has killed tens of thousands and infected quite 750,000 people across the earth .

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