How essential genes may prevent the next pandemic

Essential genes are indispensable for living organisms to grow and reproduce offspring in a certain environment. Different essential genes in different organisms can be selected as targets for combating emerging pathogens and antibiotic-resistant strains that may cause future pandemics.

Professor Xu’s team is studying essential gene targets through systems biology and computational algorithms to develop drugs to fight infectious diseases.

Drs. Ping Xu, Xiuchun Ge, Lei Chen, Yuntan Dou, Victoria Stone, Fadi Elrami, Bin Zhu, and Xiangzhen Kong