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Rachel Bianculli: Developing antiviral polymers for influenza – and all viruses

This story was written in the fall of 2021 by GRAD 5144 (Communicating Science) student Glenn Spiering as part of an assignment to interview a classmate and write a news story about her research.

Over just the past two years, the Covid-19 virus has caused millions of deaths and shut down travel and business across the entire globe. Viruses affect everyone, everywhere, and yet researchers still struggle to develop treatments for viral infections.

This photo shows a young white woman with shoulder length curly dark hair and dark-rimmed glasses. She is wearing a blue lab coat and a red paisley face mask and holding a flask filled with a white substance.
Rachel Bianculli holds a synthetically modified derivative of sialic acid. She will attach this derivative to polymers and measure the polymer's ability to inhibit influenza. Photo courtesy of Melissa Vergara.

    There still is much work to be done on inhibiting viruses, according to Rachel Bianculli, a 4th year chemistry Ph.D. student in Michael Schulz’s lab at Virginia Tech. Despite many advances in the antiviral field, viruses such as the flu and Covid-19 persevere. Bianculli and her coworker, Jonathan Mase, work on making antiviral polymers that inhibit these viruses.

    Polymers are long chains made up of repeating molecules, like a necklace is made up of repeating beads strung together. The repeating molecules for antiviral polymers are made to target a specific virus’s surface. For example, in the Schulz lab researchers primarily attach carbohydrates (e.g., sialic acid or glucose) to polymers to target viruses.

    After they reviewed the scientific literature on inhibiting viruses, it was evident to Bianculli and others in her lab that a broadly applicable strategy of viral inhibition was missing. In response to this gap, she and her coworkers wrote a perspective article1. The goal of a perspective article is to highlight the state of the field, discuss challenges that have arisen, and suggest the direction the field should be headed. Bianculli and her co-authors reviewed the many ways that antiviral polymers can prevent viral infections. They found that researchers in the field are far from a consensus and that there are many different strategies used to inhibit viruses. But a blanket method that works on all viruses remains elusive. 

    That’s where her current research comes in.

    Bianculli develops antiviral polymers to help fight the flu. The polymers she makes act as a decoy for the flu virus to bind to and create a coating surrounding the virus. This coating prevents the virus from infiltrating cells and causing infection. She seeks to discover what specific polymer design best inhibits the flu and hopes to apply these findings to make broadly applicable antivirals in the future.

This illustration shows an influenza virus combining with a sialic acid polymer, with the polymer blocking "attachment sites" on the virus.
A polymer containing sialic acid binds to a virus, blocking the virus from attaching to cells and causing infection. Image courtesy of Rachel Bianculli.

    One of the most rewarding parts of Bianculli’s research is getting to work on projects that can have a global impact. Initially interested in medical school during her undergraduate days at Bowling Green State University, she decided instead that the best way she could address the world’s problems was through chemistry. Two years into her graduate studies, she received a research result showing that her polymers had inhibited a viral infection:

    “Getting back those results and seeing that our polymers worked, that the virus was inhibited, was when it all clicked, that I was a part of something truly impactful,” she said.

    The Schulz Lab’s upcoming work looks to contribute to the antiviral polymer field and hopefully advance it for years to come.  

1.            Bianculli, R. H.;  Mase, J. D.; Schulz, M. D., Antiviral Polymers: Past Approaches and Future Possibilities. Macromolecules 2020, 53 (21), 9158-9186.