The Austrian company Nanographics, founded by scientists from the Vienna Technical University, together with specialists from China created the first real, according to their own words, the three-dimensional model of the cavity agent COVID-19.
"This is the closest image showing how coronavirus looks like. With the help of modern technologies, it is more realistic impossible. All images that appear in the media are models. We wanted to provide the public with a real image of a virus in 3D, "said Peter Minytheck, technical director Nanographics.
The 3D model was created by the method of cryoelectronic tomography: the frozen sample of the virus was scanned at different angles using an electron microscope. Then the data obtained was transformed into three-dimensional images. Then Nanographics removed noise from the source, visualized it and assigned optical properties and colors.
As a result, it turned out the image of the spherical shell structure of SARS-COV-2, from which its famous "spikes" overlook. This S-proteins are the most important element of the "crown" of the virus, which cover the particle sheath, as if spines. From here and their name - Spike (translated from English - "Schip"), and it is precisely against these thicker proteins that antiviral antibodies are targeted.
According to scientists, the dimensions of the virus particles are less than the wavelength of the visible light, therefore, for example, it has no color. So pink and blue shades on the image represented are false. They need them in order to better show the shape and various parts of SARS-COV-2. "Scientists developing vaccines and medicines should know the form of molecules. If they see it in a three-dimensional form, it will be easier to see how they work, "Mindek added.
Previously, the Russian Visual Science Biomedicine Visualization Studio introduced a detailed three-dimensional SARS-COV-2 model with a resolution to individual atoms. However, it is based on scientific research of the structure of coronaviruses, as well as on materials obtained by virusologists.
Source: Naked Science