Researchers have produced a 3-D atomic scale map of the part of the coronavirus that attaches to and infects human cells, a step that may help in the development of a vaccine or antiviral medication.
研究人员已经绘制出了新冠病毒附着并感染人类细胞部分的3D原子尺度结构图，这一步骤可能有助于疫苗或抗病毒药物的研发。
The research was published Wednesday in the journal Science. A team at the University of Texas at Austin collaborated with researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to map the molecular structure of SARS-CoV-2.
这项研究于周三发表在了《科学》杂志上。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的一个研究小组与美国国立卫生研究院的研究人员合作，绘制了SARS-CoV-2的分子结构图。
Researchers at Austin were already studying viruses in the coronavirus family and developing ways of mapping spike proteins, the part of the virus that attaches and infects human cells. Mapping the spike protein is an essential step so researchers around the world can develop vaccines and drugs to fight the virus.
奥斯汀分校的研究人员已经在研究冠状病毒家族中的病毒，并在研究绘制刺突蛋白图谱的方法，刺突蛋白是病毒附着和感染人类细胞的部分。绘制这种刺突蛋白的图谱是至关重要的一步，这样世界各地的研究人员就可以研发出对抗这种病毒的疫苗和药物。
“As soon as we knew this was a coronavirus, we felt we had to jump at it,” Jason McLellan, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who led the research, said in a statement. “We knew exactly what mutations to put into this, because we’ve already shown these mutations work for a bunch of other coronaviruses.”
“我们一知道这是一种冠状病毒后，就觉得必须马上采取行动”，研究负责人、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校副教授杰森·麦克莱伦发表声明称：“我们确切地知道应该引入什么突变（以设计疫苗），因为我们已经证明这些突变对其他一些冠状病毒有效。”
Researchers were able to design and produce samples of the spike protein within two weeks of receiving the genome sequence of the virus from researchers in China, and it took about another two weeks to reconstruct the 3-D atomic-scale map.
研究人员在从中国研究人员那里获得新冠病毒基因组序列后仅两周，就设计并生产出了这种刺突蛋白的样本，而他们又花了大约两周时间，重建出了刺突蛋白3D原子尺度结构图。
The team of researchers plan to use the molecule they mapped to isolate antibodies produced by previously infected patients who have recovered from the virus, to potentially produce a treatment for people soon after they are exposed to the virus.
该研究团队还计划利用他们制造的蛋白分子，从感染了新型冠状病毒并成功康复的患者体内分离出自然产生的抗体。
The novel coronavirus has now killed more than 2,000 people, with all but six of them in mainland China. More than 75,000 have been infected, with more than 1,000 cases outside China.
这种新型冠状病毒目前已导致2000多人死亡，除6人外，其余均在中国大陆。现已有超7.5万人感染，中国境外感染病例超过1000例。
