I In the now ubiquitous computer-generated image of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has ricocheted around the world in the year since it was created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is the virusâs âspikeâ proteins that catch the eye. Rendered in lurid red-orange, the spikes bristle like a dense forest on the barren, gray surface of a distant planet, in both color and form embodying the dread and sorrow that COVID has unleashed upon humanity. But the spikes of SARS-CoV-2 would be no more than a biological curiosity were it not for a less-familiar protein called AC...