Christmas Special: Virus Snowflakes

December 20, 2022
Pairoh Seeliger and Johannes Kaub

You don't want any more boring Christmas decorations? But something scientific? Back in 2021, we shortened our winter lockdown and decorated our windows with viral snowflakes.
This year, we've translated Dr. Hutchinson's craft template into German.

Since you are visiting our English site, you can just go ot the original source!

Dr. Hutchinsons Virus Snowflakes

Have fun cutting them out!

We wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy 2023.

Fertige Papier-Schneeflocke mit Schere
Finished! Our own coronavirus snowflake.

Corinna the Corona Cactus

@
Corinna works as an outreach person for all plant-related business and as a mascot. She gathered previous experience in the garden center, and even though she can be a bit spiky, she likes to cuddle and lie in the sun.
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Helen Ginn

Senior Research Scientist @ Diamond Light Source, Oxfordshire, UK
Dr Helen Ginn is a senior research scientist at Diamond Light Source in the UK and a computational methods developer in structural biology. She is currently working on Representation of Protein Entities (RoPE) for structural biologists to interpret subtle conformational changes in dynamic protein systems. She has developed Vagabond for torsion angle-driven model refinement and […]
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Nick Pearce

Assistant Professor @ SciLifeLab DDLS Fellow
Nick obtained his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Oxford in 2012, and then his PhD in Systems Approaches to Biomedical Sciences in 2016. He moved to Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2017 to work with Piet Gros, where he obtained an EMBO long-term fellowship and worked on analysing disorder in macromolecular structures. […]
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Mathias Schmidt

Molecular Life Sciences M.Sc. Student @ Hamburg University
Mathias is currently doing his Master's degree in Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Hamburg and has been an auxiliary scientist in the Corona Structural Taskforce since March 2022. There he is working on the question of the origin of SARS-CoV-2. His undergraduate research focuses on the development of synthetic molecular mechanisms to regulate […]
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David Briggs

Principal Laboratory Research Scientist @ Francis Crick Institute in London, UK
David Briggs is a Principal Laboratory Research Scientist in the Signalling and Structural Biology lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK. A crystallographer by training, his work focuses on the biophysical and structural characterisation of human extracellular proteins involved in the synapse, which have important ramifications in both psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. He […]
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Lisa Schmidt

Web Developer and Illustrator @ Mullana
Lisa Schmidt is a freelance illustrator who studied Multimedia and Communication (BA) in Ansbach, Germany. Her work is focused on visualising topics around science and technology. She joined the Coronavirus Structural Task Force as media designer, where she does web design, 3D rendering for scientific illustrations and outreach work.
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Philip Wehling

Nanosciences M.Sc. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Philip has long had an enthusiasm for biological processes which is paired with an analytical understanding of the world. After having worked for a long time as a registered nurse in various fields, he first studied mathematics and finally nanosciences. During a lecture series in preparation for a bachelor's thesis, he came into contact with […]
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Binisha Karki

Postdoctoral Research Associate @ BioNTech SE
Binisha works as a research associate at BioNTech where she works on the development of COVID-19 vaccine and cancer immunotherapies. She graduated as a Molecular Biology major from Southeastern Louisiana University in May 2019. Post-graduation she worked as a research technician in the Chodera Lab performing biophysical measurements of model protein-ligand systems for computational chemistry […]
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Binisha Karki

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin @ BioNTech SE
Binisha ist als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin bei BioNTech angestellt und arbeitet an der Entwicklung von Impfstoffen gegen COVID-19 sowie Krebsimmuntherapien. Sie beendete ihr Studium der Molekularbiologie an der Southeastern Louisiana University im Mai 2019. Anschließend arbeitete sie als Forschungstechnikerin im Chodera-Lab, wo sie biophysikalische Messungen an Modellen von Protein-Liganden-Systeme für computerchemische Benchmarks durchführte.
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Hauke Hillen

Assistant Professor at the University Medical Center Göttingen & Group Leader at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry @ University Medical Center Göttingen
Hauke ist Biochemiker und Strukturbiologe. Mit seinem Forschungsteam untersucht er mittels Röntgenkristallografie und Kryo-Elektronenmikroskopie die Struktur und Funktion von molekularen Maschinen, die für die Genexpression in eukaryotischen Zellen verantwortlich sind. Er interessiert sich dabei besonders dafür wie genetisches Material außerhalb des Zellkerns exprimiert wird, zum Beispiel in menschlichen Mitochondrien oder durch Viren im Zytoplasma.
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Richardson Lab

Richardson Lab @ Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
The long-term goal of the Richardson lab is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the 3D structures of proteins and RNA, including their description, determinants, folding, evolution, and control. Their approaches include structural bioinformatics, macromolecular crystallography, molecular graphics, analysis of structures, and methods development, currently focussed on the improvement of structural accuracy. In this […]
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Holger Theymann

Agile Leadership Coach @ mehr-Freu.de GmbH
Holger keeps websites running. He makes data from scientific databases appear in nice tables. He also has an eye on keeping the sites fast, safe and reliable. His experience as a software developer, systems architect, agile project manager and coach enabled the Task Force to get the whole process well organized and he even taught […]
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Florens Fischer

Biology M.Sc. Student @ Rudolf Virchow Center, Würzburg University
Florens is studying biology (M.Sc.) and worked in the Task Force as a student assistant. He has focused on bioinformatics and supports the work on automation of scripts and structuralization of big data with machine learning. He also supported the team in other areas, such as scientific research.
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Ezika Joshua Onyeka

Public Health M.Sc. student @ Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Joshua joined Thorn Lab as a student assistant. He is a Public Health practitioner, holds a bachelor's degree in Public Health and is currently enrolled at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences for his MPH. He has helped in implementing some vaccination programmes to improve immunisation coverage and training of immunisation frontline health workers. For the […]
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Katharina Hoffmann

Molecular Biology M.Sc. student @ Institut für Nanostruktur und Festkörperphysik, Universität Hamburg
Katharina worked as a student assistant at Thorn Lab. Normally, she studies molecular biology at the University of Hamburg. In her master's thesis, which was put on hold by Corona, she is working on the interruption of bacterial communication. Since the lockdown, she has been digging around in databases and analyzing sequences. She never thought […]
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Nicole Dörfel

Media Designer @
Nicole Dörfel ensures that we and our work are looking good! She is the illustrator, media designer and the artistic soul of the Task Force. She works her magic both in print and digitally—her focus is general media design. In the Task Force, she is mainly responsible for graphics, photo editing, design of all our […]
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Pairoh Seeliger

Administration Assistant @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Pairoh Seeliger is the admin wizard of the Task Force. She takes care of media requests, handles any logistical issues that come up and makes sure our science doesn’t sound too complicated in our German outreach efforts. She self-describes as "a jack of all trades with a University education in German studies and business administration, […]
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Oliver Kippes

Biochemistry B.Sc. Student @ Rudolf Virchow Center, Würzburg University
Oli is studying biochemistry (B.Sc) and has completed a training as an IT specialist prior to his studies. With the combined knowledge of his studies and training, he helps maintaining the structural database, programs applications for it and supports the team in literature research. In spite of his study, structural biology was still a new […]
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Luise Kandler

Biochemistry B.Sc. Student @ Rudolf-Virchow Center, Würzburg University
Luise is a B.Sc. student in biochemistry at the University of Würzburg and joined the Task Force during the first Corona lockdown. She did her bachelor's thesis with the Thorn Lab, where she learned programming with Python and worked on the implementation of a GUI for our machine learning tool HARUSPEX in Coot. In the […]
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Ferdinand Kirsten

Biochemistry B.Sc. Student @ Rudolf Virchow Center, Würzburg University
Ferdinand did his bachelor's thesis at Thorn Lab on solvent exchange and interactions in macromolecular crystallography. Still new to the world of crystallography and structural refinement, he tries to help wherever he can, with a main focus on literature and genome research as well as structural refinement with Coot. Even if he's more of the […]
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Kristopher Nolte

Biochemistry B.Sc. Student @ Rudolf-Virchow Center, Würzburg University
Kristopher joined Thorn Lab as part of his bachelor thesis. In this thesis he refined aspects of the diagnostic tool for graphical X-Ray data analysis (AUSPEX) with the help of machine learning. But since the corona crisis halted all our lives, he contributes to the Task Force by using his knowledge of bioinformatics and programming […]
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Erik Nebelung

Nanoscience M.Sc. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Erik is studying nanoscience with a focus on biochemical methods and applications. From August 2020 till January 2021 he pursued his studies at the iNano institute in Aarhus, before starting his master's thesis back in Hamburg. He had his first taste of protein crystallization during his bachelor's thesis work and this sparked his interest in […]
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Toyin Akinselure

Nanoscience M.Sc. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Toyin ist a microbiologist and presently an M.Sc. student in nanoscience with a focus on nanobiology and nanochemistry. She is interested in scientific research especially in protein chemistry and drug discovery. In the previous autumn and winter, she interned with two research projects, one in drug discovery and the other in protein structure. She found […]
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Lea von Soosten

Physics M.Sc. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Lea is a M.Sc. physics student with a great interest in everything related to biology. Even though she comes from a different field, she joined the team to expand her knowledge in biochemistry and help the Task Force with a main focus on literature research. Also, she loves drawing!
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Sabrina Stäb

Biotechnology M.Sc. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Sabrina is studying biochemistry (M.Sc.) and works as a research assistant for the Thorn Lab and the CSTF. During her bachelor thesis on "Crystallization and Structure Solution of High-Quality Structures for MAD Experiments", she was able to gain a lot of experience in the field of crystallography and now brings this experience to the project. […]
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Alexander Matthew Payne

Chemical Biology Ph.D. Student @ Chodera Lab, Memorial Sloan Kettering Center for Cancer Research, New York, U.S.
Alex is a Ph.D. student interested in understanding how proteins move! He has recently joined the labs of John Chodera and Richard Hite to work on a joint project involving molecular dynamics and Cryo-EM. His goal is to generate conformational ensembles from Cryo-EM data and simulate the ensemble using massive scale molecular dynamics via Folding@Home. […]
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Maximilian Edich

Bioinformatics Ph.D. Student @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Max studied bioinformatics and genome research in Bielefeld and joined the CSTF as a Ph.D. student in 2021. Previously, his focus was on molecular modeling. Now, he works on the so-called R-factor gap. He already learned what it is like to be part of a young, scientific team as a member of the iGEM contest […]
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Agnel Praveen Joseph

Computational Scientist @ Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK
Dr. Agnel Praveen works as a computational scientist in the CCP-EM team at the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK. He is interested in approaches to interpret and validate maps and atomic models derived from Cryo-EM data and looks also into computational methods for the interpretation of Cryo-ET data. In collaboration with five other sites […]
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Dale Tronrud

Research Scientist @
Dale Tronrud has both solved protein crystal structures and developed methods and software for the optimization of macromolecular models against X-ray data and known chemical structural information. He has had a long-standing interest in enzyme:inhibitor complexes and photosynthetic proteins, focusing on the Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein. In addition, he has also been involved in the validation and […]
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Sam Horrell

Beamline Scientist @ Diamond Light Source, Oxfordshire, UK
Sam is a structural biologist working on method development around structural biology at Diamond Light Source, in particular for ways of better understanding how enzymes function through the production of structural movies. Sam is working through deposited structures related to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 with a view to providing the most accurate protein structures possible for […]
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Cameron Fyfe

Postdoctoral Research Associate @ Micalis Institute, INRAE, Paris, France
Cameron is a structural biologist who has worked extensively on proteins from microorganisms. With many years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and in structural biology research, he joined the Task Force to contribute his skills to improve existing models for drug development. He is currently researching Radical SAM enzymes at INRAE. When not in […]
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Tristan Croll

Postdoctoral Research Associate @ Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge
Tristan is a specialist in the modelling of atomic structures into low-resolution crystallographic and cryo-EM density, and developer of the model-building package ISOLDE. His focus in the project is on correcting the various errors in geometry and/or chemical identity that tend to occur in less well-resolved regions, with the overall aim of bringing the standards […]
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Gianluca Santoni

Serial Crystallography Data Scientist @ European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France
Gianluca is an expert in protein crystallography data collection and analysis. After a PhD in structure-based drug design, he has worked as a postdoc on the beamline ID23-1 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and has developed the SSX data analysis software ccCluster. His current interests are the optimization of data collection strategies for […]
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Yunyun Gao

Postdoctoral Research Associate in the AUSPEX Project @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Yunyun is a method developer for strategies of analysing data from biomacromolecules. Before joining the Thorn group, he had been working on SAXS/WAXS of polymers and proteins. He is interested in improving objectivity and reliability of data analysis. Yunyun is currently extending the functionality of AUSPEX. He is the repository manager and AUSPEX handler for […]
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Johannes Kaub

Scientific Coordinator @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Johannes Kaub studied chemistry at RWTH Aachen, with a focus on solid-state physical chemistry, before serving as a scientific employee at the Max Planck Instiute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter. He supports the Coronavirus Structural Task Force as a scientific coordinator with his organizing ability and his talent for solving problems. Other than […]
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Andrea Thorn

Group Leader @ Institute for Nanostructure and Solid-State Physics, Hamburg University
Andrea is a specialist for crystallography and Cryo-EM structure solution, having contributed to programs like SHELX, ANODE and (a little bit) to PHASER in the past. Her group develops the diffraction diagnostics tool AUSPEX, a neural network for secondary structure annotation of Cryo-EM maps (HARUSPEX) and enables other scientists to solve problem structures. Andrea is […]
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