These materials were used in a June 2020 Boot Camp for undergraduate researchers held virtually to understand how the protein evolved during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring amino acid sequence and 3D atomic-level structure using various structural bioinformatics tools.

Four modules are available for use in a lecture/lab course where students can learn much more about the structural biology of the COVID-19 main protease (Nsp5).

1. Protein Data Bank, Structural Biology, and SARS-CoV-2

2. Sequence Alignments and Phylogenetic Trees (with exercises)

3. 3D Structure Visualization with Mol* (with exercises)

4. Protein Modeling and Foldit (with exercises)

Additional lectures are available on SARS-CoV-2 protein structures, the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and a COVID-19 test developed at Rutgers.

Materials presented are free for reuse. Please cite COVID-19 Evolution and Structural Biology (2020) BAMBed 48:511–513 doi: 10.1002/bmb.21428.

Modules

General Lectures

Acknowledgements