The rational design of Zika protease inhibitors

Zika virus is an important global threat to human health. After emerging to cause the Pacific and the American epidemics in 2014-2017, Zika virus was found to cause neurological diseases and birth defects. However, there remains no specific treatment or vaccine. I have been working on an early-stage drug discovery project to find useful small compounds (fragments) that can hopefully go on to become effective drugs to treat Zika virus infection - and, hopefully, to treat infection by related viruses too.