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Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Rutgers logo
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
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Prof. Neimark receives a $499,765 research award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) titled "Multiscale Modeling of Coronavirus Virions in the Respiratory System". This new NSF award will contribute into multifaceted Rutgers efforts in COVID-19 research. For the first time, the methods of nanoscale interfacial engineering will be applied to study interactions of coronavirus virions with lung surfactants that may inform ongoing clinical search for surfactant therapies. This award supports computational research and educational activities to study in detail and on a molecular level how SARS-CoV-2 and its variants adhere to the lung surfactant film, how the virus particle is capable of passing through the film, and how surfactant molecules, either those that belong to the lung surfactant film or exogenous ones, affect this process. Atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations are applied with the goal to reveal the pathophysiological behavior of an entire coronavirus particle as it interacts with the lung surfactant layer. The potential to inform the search for novel therapeutic pathways that inhibit coronavirus activity by using exogenous surfactants endows the research with an interdisciplinary scope.

The period of the project is for 4 years.

More details about the study are available from the NSF website.