Dr. Ian Wilson, a member of the National Academies of Science, is currently Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and the Chair of Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. Through conducting high-resolution x-ray structural studies of adaptive and innate immune cell receptors, the major goal of Dr. Wilson’s laboratory is to understand the interaction and neutralization of foreign antigens by the immune system. While most of his work is focused on HIV-1 and influenza viruses, Dr. Wilson has recently demonstrated how important classes of neutralizing antibodies bind to the original pandemic strain of SARS-CoV-2—and how the process is disrupted by mutations found in new variants first detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa and India. His research suggests that future vaccines and antibody-based treatments could provide broader protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants by eliciting or utilizing antibodies against parts of the virus that lie outside the receptor binding site.