About five weeks after cases of COVID-19 began to appear, scientists based in Shanghai, China, deposited the first 3D structure of a crucial protein from the virus causing the disease into the Protein Data Bank (PDB), an open-access repository for data on biological structures. As happened with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) — both also caused by coronaviruses — scientists are sharing information in ways not typical for a competitive, commercial field. Knowing the shapes of proteins from the virus that causes COVID-19 could accelerate the discovery of drugs and vaccines. But that will not happen if other barriers — financial, regulatory or legal — get in the way. Lowering them is essential to defending against COVID-19 and preparing for the inevitable future outbreaks.
