Predicting future mamalian hosts of SARS-CoV-2
Coronaviruses can infect both animals and humans. Coronavirus infections are common, and some strains are zoonotic, which means they can be transmitted between animals and humans.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), emerged in Wuhan City, China, in late December 2019. Though the exact animal reservoir of the virus is yet to be identified, scientists believe the virus came from a horseshoe bat and jumped to an intermediate host before making its way to the human population.
Researchers at the Beijing Computational Science Research Center and Peking University analyzed sequences of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins from 16 mammals and predicted the structures of ACE2- receptor-binding domain (RBD) complexes.
DEGREES OFFERED IN THE DEPT. OF PHYSICS
Master of Science, Physics (thesis)
Master of Arts, Physics (non-thesis; graduation by exam)
Master of Science, Medical Physics, accredited by Commission on Accreditation on Medical Physics (CAMPEP)
Joint Ph.D. in Computational Science through the Computational Science Research Center (for more information contact Dr. Weber above or the director of the CSRC, Dr. Jose Castillo.
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MS Physics students are successful in industry, national labs, and Ph.D. programs. • MS Medical Physics students are successful in residency programs, Ph.D. programs, and the medical devices/technology industry.
PhD Computational Science students are successful in national labs and academia. • Favorable student-to-faculty ratio with graduate physics courses averaging about 10 students. Full-time faculty teach all graduate lectures and laboratory courses. • Close student-faculty contact.
Graphene gets a bandgap for opto-electronics
While graphene has some amazing physical, optical and mechanical properties, its lack of a natural bandgap limits its use in electronics.
Methods of varying complexity have been found to add bandgaps, and now there is another tool in the box – a chemical whose molecules self-assemble into an evenly-spaced flat lattice as they bond down into the graphene and give it a bandgap through sp2 to sp3 hybridisation.
Self-spacing is important, as it removes the fiddly task of externally guiding molecules into position to control the combined material’s electronic properties.
This “research is rather fundamental but could have repercussions over the next few years in optoelectronics, such as in the fabrication of photodetectors or in the field of solar energy”, according to Professor Federico Rosei of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Canada, which was part of the academic consortium.