Media Release

Melbourne, Sep 15: A Mangalurean studying at the University of Melbourne has co-authored a new paper along with his team looking at COVID-19 mutations and how it impacts drug and vaccine development.

There has been much talk about drugs and vaccines in the fight against COVID-19. However, the goal that many scientists and drug designers wish to achieve is not only developing drugs or vaccines but ensuring that they work over time. 

Elston Neil D'Souza

Mutations are changes in the genetic code of the coronavirus that can sometimes reduce the efficacy of drugs or vaccines. Fortunately, while we know that SARS-CoV-2 mutates slower than flu, there are about two new changes in its genetic code every month, it is nevertheless very important that these drugs work despite these new mutations. 

Recently, research led by associate professor David Ascher and his team of biomedical researchers, have developed a new tool dubbed COVID-3D. 

They used the data from 1,20,000 coronavirus samples across the world to look at mutations and aid in the development of COVID-3D. This tool is an open and freely accessible web resource (http://biosig.unimelb.edu.au/covid3d) that can help researchers around the world to help develop drugs and vaccines that are effective. Dr Ascher is a world-leading expert in structural biology and advanced drug development, who holds positions at the University of Melbourne and University of Cambridge.

The youngest member of the team is 22-year-old Mangalurean Elston Neil D'Souza. Elston is the elder son of Vincent D'Souza, an ADNOC employee, and Cynthia D'Souza from Kulshekar Parish in Mangaluru. He studied in ADNOC Schools, Ruwais as a science student and graduated in 2016 before moving to Australia to pursue his bachelor's degree in computational biology at the University of Melbourne. Elston is currently a biomedical honours researcher at associate professor Ascher's lab. His parents along with his younger sister Elria are residing in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

As the global scientific and medical community continuously gains a better understanding of the biology behind SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease, it will become a powerful resource to guide the development of more tailored therapies.

More details available in the below publication

Nature Genetics Publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-0693-3

University of Melbourne: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/locked-and-loaded-using-genomic-sequencing-to-target-covid-19-s-weak-spots