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Editor’s note: In this interview, Nathan Ahlgren, assistant professor of biology at Clark University, uses 3D-printed models to explain what proteins do in viruses, how they interact with human cells, how the vaccine delivers mRNA into the cell, and how antibodies protect us. This follows an earlier article in which he explained what proteins are and the wide range of functions they have in the body.
What do proteins do in a virus? What else is in a virus?
All of life has proteins. So human cells have proteins, and the same is true for viruses, even though they’re very different from the cells in our body. A virus is made up of two main things – a protein shell and genetic material.