Dr. Andew Ward is a professor for the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. By using integrative structural biology techniques, Dr. Ward is interested in studying novel membrane proteins expressed on the surface of enveloped viruses and how they can mediate viral entry into the cell by recognizing cell surface receptors and initiating endocytosis or membrane fusion. Through defining the high-resolution structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by using single particle electron microscopy and electron tomography, Dr. Ward’s work provides insight to the high rate of transmission of COVID-19 and a scientific basis for the vaccine inducing neutralizing antibodies.