The Open Science Forum features monthly talks from scientists from NIH-funded Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers who elect to provide updates on target priorities, advertise available resources and reagents, disclose chemical matter (such as hits, leads, and chemical tool compounds) and associated antiviral data, share findings regarding in vivo efficacy models, discuss downstream development and translation models, and share ideas.

Talks will be public, recorded, and shared online along with links to relevant resources and reagents for the benefit of other AViDD Centers and the global antiviral drug discovery community.

An unrecorded discussion with the speakers follows each pair of talks for those that wish to discuss the science behind the work more deeply.

NOTE: The AViDD Open Science Forum is not an official NIAID activity. There is no requirement for staff from AViDD Centers or the NIH to participate in this forum.

Event format

Each monthly Open Science Forum event will be a one-hour webinar featuring two short scientific talks followed by an optional 30-minute moderated discussion with the speakers:

Science talks (recorded, webinar format)

• Talk 1 : 25 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A
• Talk 2 : 25 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A

Moderated discussion with speakers (unrecorded, Zoom meeting format)

• Talk 1 : 30 minutes

Each recorded talk will be posted online after the event, along with relevant links to publications, data, reagents, or other resources discussed by the speaker that may be useful in disseminating resources or reagents for global antiviral discovery.

Mailing list

To receive invitations to events and other news items, sign up for the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Open Science Forum mailing list.

Schedule

The Open Science Forum will hold virtual events the third Wednesday of every month:

Wed 20 December 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: John Chodera (MSKCC)

• Alejandro Chavez, UC San Diego: High-throughput approaches to viral drug discovery
• Duncan Scott, University of Dundee: Targeting the nsp14 methyltransferase of coronaviruses

Wed 17 January 2024: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Frank von Delft (Diamond Light Source)

• Timothy Sheahan, UNC Chapel Hill (READDI-AC): Preparing for tomorrow’s pandemics today through the development of broad-spectrum antivirals
• Sumit Chanda, Scripps Research (CAMPP): TBD

Wed 21 February 2024: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Peter Sjö (DNDi)

• Andrew Owen, University of Liverpool: Lessons learned from the mechanism of action and pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationships for antiviral medicines evaluated during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Ralph Baric, UNC Chapel Hill (READDI-AC): TBD

Wed 20 March 2024: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Karla Kirkegaard (Stanford University)

• Melissa Barber, Harvard University: TBD
• Nat Moorman, UNC Chapel Hill (READDI-AC):Targeting proteases with antiviral drugs

Wed 17 April 2024: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Alpha Lee (PostEra)

• John Young, Roche Pharma: TBD
• Nir London, Weizmann Institute of Science (ASAP): Covalent approaches for anti-virals

Past Presentations

All talk videos are archived on Youtube and slides are archived at Zenodo.

Wed 15 November 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: John Chodera (MSKCC)

• Ivan Ahel, University of Oxford: Development of inhibitors against the SARS-CoV-2 NSP3 macrodomain [Video]
• Craig Cameron, UNC Chapel Hill: To excise or not to excise: Potentiating the activity of anti-SARS2 nucleotides by inhibiting its exoribonuclease [Video]

Wed 18 October 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Peter Sjö (DNDi)

• David Perlin and Ching-Wen Chang, Center for Discovery and Innovation (MAVDA): MAVDA- Developing Novel Cellular Tools for Antiviral Drug Discovery [Video] [Slides]

Wed 20 September 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Frank von Delft (Diamond Light Source)

• Stephanie Wills, University of Oxford: Algorithms for progressing crystallographic fragment hits at XChem: Fragment merging using the Fragment Network [Video] [Slides] [Paper]
• Serghei Glinca, CrystalsFirst: Magnet for the needle in haystacks: Unlocking chemical matter using “crystal structure first” fragment hits [Video] [Slides] [Paper]

Wed 16 August 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Peter Sjö (DNDi)

• Thiago Moreno L. Souza, Center for Technological Development in Health (CDTS/Fiocruz): Fighting recent outbreaks of RNA viruses in Brazil [Video]
• Melanie Ott, UCSF: Understanding SARS-CoV-2 Variants through Reverse Genetics [Video]

Wed 19 July 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: John Chodera (MSKCC)

• Karla Kirkegaard, Stanford University (ASAP): Biochemistry of suppressing drug resistance by viral quasispecies [Video]
• Marnix van Loock, Johnson & Johnson: The role of public-private partnerships in the discovery and development of a pan-serotype antiviral to prevent and treat dengue [Video] [Slides]

Wed 21 June 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)

Moderator: Frank von Delft(Diamond Light Source)(ASAP)

• Johan Neyts, Ku Leuven: The Battle of Leuven against Viruses [Video]
• Ryan Lithgo, Diamond Light Source (ASAP): Crystallographic fragment screening of Enterovirus D68 3C protease as part of the AI-driven Structure-enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) [Video]

Wed 17 May 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)

Moderator: Alpha Lee (PostEra)

• Mauro Teixeira, UFMG: Anti-inflammatory drugs for infectious diseases: the case for pro-resolving molecules [Video]
• Reuben Harris, UT Health San Antonio (Midwest AViDD Center): Rapid methods for Mpro inhibitor resistance profiling [Video]

Wed 19 April 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: John Chodera (MSKCC)

• Matthias Gotte, University of Alberta: What is the value of mechanism of action studies in the development of nucleotide analogue polymerase inhibitors? [Video]
• Andre de Godoy, University of Sao Paulo: Structural insights on the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease maturation process and inhibition [Video] [Slides]

Wed 15 Mar 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 3.00P UK (GMT+1) / 4.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Peter Sjö (DNDi)

• Celia Schiffer, UMass Chan (ASAP): Avoiding drug resistance: Defining the substrate envelope for the design of viral protease inhibitors [Video]
• Alison Krentel, University of Ottawa: Now it’s been made, how will it be used? Exploring the pathway from lab to community [Video] [Slides]

Wed 15 Feb 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: John Chodera (MSKCC)

• Brian Shoichet, UCSF (QBI Coronavirus Research Group): False-positives in anti-viral drug discovery: mechanistic bases and rapid counterscreening assays [Video] [Aggregator Advisor]
• Jesse Bloom, Fred Hutch (ASAP): Fitness effects of mutations to SARS-CoV-2 proteins [Video] [Slides] [Interactive Slides [Interactive Data Browser] [Preprint]

Wed 18 Jan 2023: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Alpha Lee (PostEra)

• Daniel Bolon, UMass Chan (ASAP): Systematic analyses of the resistance potential of drugs targeting Mpro of SARS-CoV-2
• Matthew Evans, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (CAMPP);(ASAP): Deep mutational scanning of flaviviruses [Video] [Slides]

Wed 21 Dec 2022: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Peter Sjö (DNDi)

• Neelika Malavige, DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative): Epidemiological, clinical and immunological risk factors of severe dengue [Video] [Slides]
• Pei-Yong Shi, UTMB BMB (The UTMB-Novartis Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness (UNAPP)): Dengue Drug Discovery [Video]

Wed 16 Nov 2022: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2)
Moderator: Alpha Lee (PostEra)

• Ed Griffen, MedChemica (ASAP): Focusing projects with target product profiles (TPPs) and target candidate profiles (TCPs) using the ASAP SARS-CoV-2/MERS-CoV Mpro program as an example [Video] [Slides]
• Tim Willson, Matthieu Schapira, Mat Todd (READDI):
  • Are helicases druggable targets? (Tim Willson) [Video] [Slides]
    • HeliHub helicase database: Use SGC ChemBioPort Query ID: i9hao20220815
  • Analysis of coronavirus helicases and CACHE Challenge #2 on finding hits for SARS-CoV-2 nsp13 (Matthieu Schapira) [Video] [Slides]
    • Conservation of predicted pockets in coronaviruses
  • SARS-CoV-2 nsp13 fragments and the Open Chemistry Network (Mat Todd) [Video] [Slides]
    • SGC nsp13 open lab notebook

Wed 19 Oct 2022: 8.00A PT / 11.00A ET / 4.00P UK (GMT+1) / 5.00P Geneva (GMT+2) [Recording]
Moderator: John Chodera (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

• Frank von Delft, Diamond Light Source (ASAP): Moonshot lessons for open science: sustaining a collaboration platform for real-time data and idea sharing in targeting SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease [Video] [Slides]
  • Public datasets
    • SARS-CoV-2 X-ray fragment screens at Diamond Light Source
    • Fragalysis online X-ray fragment screen viewer for public datasets
• James Fraser, UCSF (QBICRG): The mechanisms of catalysis and ligand binding for the SARS-CoV-2 NSP3 macrodomain from neutron and X-ray diffraction at room temperature [Video] [Slides]
  • Public datasets
    • Identifying new ligands for the SARS-CoV-2 Macrodomain by Fragment Screening and Multi-temperature Crystallography [Interactively explore on Fragalysis]
  • Preprints and papers
    • Iterative computational design and crystallographic screening identifies potent inhibitors targeting the Nsp3 Macrodomain of SARS-CoV-2 [DOI]
    • Fragment binding to the Nsp3 macrodomain of SARS-CoV-2 identified through crystallographic screening and computational docking [DOI]
    • The mechanisms of catalysis and ligand binding for the SARS-CoV-2 NSP3 macrodomain from neutron and x-ray diffraction at room temperature [DOI]
    • Of problems and opportunities—How to treat and how to not treat crystallographic fragment screening data [DOI]
  • Tutorials
    • Multi-state models from PanDDA
    • Inspecting PanDDA event maps deposited in the Protein Data Bank
  • Software
    • Fragmentstein X-ray fragment merging ligand design tools

Antiviral Discovery Resources

Antiviral discovery resources will be indexed here.

• SARS-CoV-2 X-ray fragment screens at Diamond Light Source