Thomas Gallagher
Loyola University Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Coronaviruses get into cells using spike proteins, large three-part molecules that stud the virus surface. The spike first grabs a receptor on the cell, then dramatically refolds to pull the viral and cell membranes together so they fuse and the genome is delivered inside.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
SARS-CoV-2
coronavirus
spike glycoprotein
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Determine how mutations in the S2 fusion segment of the SARS-CoV-2 spike control the receptor-binding domain and its engagement with receptors, identifying specific variant substitutions that alter receptor reactivity and spike stability.
- Compare the rates of S2 structural transitions from prefusion through fusion intermediate to postfusion states across variants of concern, using HR2 peptides that trap and report specific transitional spike states.
- Select and characterize variants resistant to inhibitors of S2 structural dynamics using replication-competent VSV carrying the SARS-CoV-2 spike, and test whether they require different receptors and proteases for entry.
- Assign individual S2 amino acid substitutions to altered cell entry pathways using fusion-competent virus-like particles, SARS-CoV-2 replicons and recombinant viruses.
More about the research
SARS-CoV-2 keeps changing, and each new variant of concern tends to outcompete the last. Most of those changes land in the spike. The receptor-binding part of the spike has been studied intensively, but the S2 part—the segment that actually drives membrane fusion—has been largely overlooked, even though the omicron variant carries more than six mutations there. This project asks what those S2 changes do.
Why it matters
Coronaviruses that adapt to spread and cause disease in people remain a standing global health threat. Clarifying how mutations in the fusion machinery of the spike change cell entry would help explain the selective pressures behind past, current and future variants of concern, and could reveal new targets for drugs that block coronavirus entry.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Veesler
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how broadly serum antibodies from nonhuman primates immunized with nanoparticle vaccines co-displaying multiple receptor-binding-domain and spike antigens bind and neutralize betacoronaviruses.
Alex Guseman
University of California-San Diego, CA·Biochemistry·Early-career
Define the thermodynamic and atomic-level structural basis of protein–glycan binding, explaining how a protein picks out one sugar structure from the heterogeneous mixture present on cells.
Hideki Aihara
University of Minnesota, MN·Biochemistry
Investigate how host cell factors take part in integration of Human T-cell Leukemia virus and Rous sarcoma virus, building on structural studies of their intasomes, the protein–DNA complexes that insert viral DNA into chromosomes.
The school
Loyola University Chicago: 8 labs on PI Pages, $61M a year on research, 156 research doctorates a year.
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