The correct answer is Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore have designed a new class of artificial peptides or miniproteins that they say can render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive. The study has been published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The miniproteins can not only block virus entry into our cells but also clump virus particles together, reducing their ability to infect. Important Points?The researchers noted that a protein-protein interaction is often like that of a lock and a key. This interaction can be hampered by a lab-made miniprotein that mimics, competes with, and prevents the 'key' from binding to the 'lock', or vice versa. The team used this approach to design miniproteins that can bind to, and block the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which helps it to enter and infect the human cells. This binding was further characterised extensively by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and other biophysical methods. These miniproteins are helical, hairpin-shaped peptides, each capable of pairing up with another of its kind, forming what is known as a dimer. Each dimeric bundle presents two faces to interact with two target molecules.