Queen’s Chemical Engineering PhD candidate Mona Kanso has had her paper titled “Coronavirus Pleomorphism” accepted for publication in the journal Physics of Fluids. Her research, carried out as a team with co-authors from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), King Mongkut University North Bangkok (Thailand) and the Okinawa Institute of Technology (Japan), deepens our understanding of how the coronavirus particles position themselves to attach to cells. By pleomorphism, Kanso means the many shapes that the virus particles take on. The paper shows how much more slowly the coronavirus can rotate when its core is elliptical, rather than spherical.
The paper is available to read at American Institute of Physics - Physics of Fluids and AIP Scilight recently interviewed the authors on their work here: “Coronavirus shape alters infection ability”
