Congratulations to Ashleigh Shannon for receiving the Chu Family Foundation (TCFF) award

Ashleigh Shannon has received a Chu Family Foundation (TCFF) award for early career women in antiviral research for her work on uncovering the mechanism of action of the nucleoside analog Bemnifosbuvir (AT-527) and its role as a potential coronavirus therapeutic. AT-527 is a prodrug that is converted in cells to the nucleoside triphosphate, AT-9010, which blocks both the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (nsp12)  and the coronavirus-specific ‘NiRAN’ domain present on nsp12.

The award has allowed her to attend and present this research at three international conferences; ICAR (Seattle USA, March 2022), Keystone Plus Strand Conference (Colorado USA, June 2022) – where she was additionally awarded a keystone symposia travel scholarship, and the Australiasian Virology Society (AVS) conference (Gold Coast Australia, December 2022).