Two recent articles have characterized the high-resolution structures of the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM). The first study published is from Jason McLellan’s group at the University of Texas Austin (see 1st image below), and the second study published is from David Veesler’s group at the University of Washington (see 2nd image below).
These studies give exquisite detail of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, which is commonly used for vaccine design. The hope is that vaccines can make the human immune system generate long-lived antibodies that tightly bind to the S protein and block the virus from being able to infect and replicate in our cells.
From Wrapp et al. 2020.
From Walls et al. 2020.