Hi Reddit!

We're a team of researchers mostly from the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. We use computers to create brand new proteins. Many of our scientists are now working to tackle coronavirus — they’re trying to develop new antiviral drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.

To learn more about the IPD, check out this 2019 TED talk by IPD Director David Baker.

Today we have folks from our vaccine design team here to answer questions about our nanoparticle vaccine platform. We are using it to develop a number of candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as quickly as possible. To learn about our vaccine platform, check out this recent article in STAT news or read through our scientific publications. This work is largely supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We believe this technology could one day yield a universal coronavirus vaccine that would protect against not just SARS-CoV-2 but almost any future coronavirus. (Before the COVID-19 outbreak, we were hard at work on a universal flu vaccine.)

We are also part of the team behind Foldit, the free scientific computer game that lets anyone do protein design. We’ve got puzzles up right now that challenge players to craft antiviral proteins against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The most promising solutions from Foldit players will be manufactured and tested at the IPD. We’re currently in our 5th round of anti-coronavirus Foldit puzzles, and are preparing to test our first designs in the lab. Check out this NPR story on Foldit player’s prior work on an HIV-related enzyme.

You don’t have to be a scientist to play Foldit! Check out our YouTube channel to learn more.

Here's who's answering questions today:

Vaccines:

• Annie Dosey / AnnieDoseyUW, Graduate student, IPD [T: anniedosey]
• Daniel Ellis / DanEllisUW, Graduate student, IPD [T: DanLikeProteins]
• Neil King, PhD / NeilKingUW, Assistant professor, IPD [T: KingLabIPD]
• Lauren Carter, MS / LcarterUW, Staff scientist, IPD

Foldit:

• Brian Koepnick, PhD / bkoep, Staff scientist, IPD
• Jeff Flatten / Jflat06, Software developer, UW Center for Game Science
• Josh Miller / JoshMillerNEU, Graduate student, Northeastern [T: joshaaronmiller]

Other:

• Ian Haydon, MS / UW_IPD_official , Communications manager, IPD [T: ichaydon]
• Lexi Walls, PhD / LexiWallsUW, Postdoc, UW Veesler Lab [T: coronalexington]
• Erin Yang / ErinYangUW, Graduate student, IPD [T: erincyang]

We'll be here live at 11:00 AM PT (2 PM ET, 18 UT). Ask us anything!

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EDIT: It's 1:30 PM PT — we're going to call it a day. Thanks Reddit for the great questions!

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