- In my opinion, anyway, we're training people to be a universal specialists.

That's a strange word, university specialists.

People who have a creative toolbox that can rapidly employ that toolbox to whatever happens to come down the pipe in the future.

- [Narrator] You could say Ralph Baric has an infectious passion for science, discovery, and Coronaviruses.

It's why he's known as the Coronavirus hunter.

- I studied Coronaviruses since about 1984, I guess that's..

It's hard to do the math.

36, 37 years.

[chuckling] - [Narrator] The Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 took most of the world by surprise, but not Ralph Baric.

He's been on the front lines, investigating Coronavirus outbreaks throughout his career.

- I was attracted to Coronaviruses for a couple of reasons.

First reason is, we knew nothing about this family of viruses.

The second thing, is that what little we did know, suggested that they had a very unique way to replicate in the cell that had never been described for any other RNA virus.

And so I was interested in how viruses replicate, how their genomes are organized and how they regulate gene expression.

- So Coronavirus is a virus that has dominated our lives.

What's it look like?

How does it work?

- Okay, I'm going to do my best here at drawing.

I'm gonna to draw it from the inside out.

Okay.

Inside out.

So the payload of the virus is called a nucleic acid.

And it's an RNA molecule that's sort of is wrapped around here in the middle of the virus particle.

And that RNA is coated in a protein, that I'm gonna call the nucleocapsid protein.

Now surrounding that is a little bubble of fat projecting out from this particle are these large peplum or spikes.

And it gives the virus, its unique appearance in the electron microscope.

And it looks like a corona or a halo around the sun.

Hence the name Coronavirus.

- Coronavirus - Have you ever seen the movie Alien?

There's these little plant shape things that sort of open up.

Those flaps opening up right on the top is what happens on the Coronavirus spike and three of them, anywhere from one to three of these can open up.

Here's your host cell.

And there's a protein here called ACE 2.

It has spaces in it that this can stick into that.

And once that happens, boom!

Virus go inside the cell and infects it.

- That's the infection.

- That's the infection, right there.

- [Narrator] Researchers worked 15 hour days in secure labs, under strict protocols.

Everyone united in the tedious process of analyzing the virus and then testing drugs, to create a vaccine to stop it.

- It's been a whirlwind of just absolute pressure and joy too, at the same time.

When we figured out that a lot of these projects that we were involved with with some of the major vaccine players, In fact, two out of the five Operation Warp Speed vaccines, both Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

So it was really a good day, whenever we heard that the vaccines were incredibly effective in humans and phase three clinical trials.

Not only have we been involved in developing vaccines and antibody therapeutics against the COVID-19 virus, but we're also preparing for treatments and therapeutics for other cousins of the COVID-19 virus that could potentially emerge into humans later on.

[gentle upbeat music] - We're lucky to have a very large and experienced lab.

So a lot of people are working pretty independently, heading up their own projects, forming working groups of like, okay, these people are really great cloners, so they're gonna work on making a molecular clone of the virus.

These people are really good with primary cells, so we're going to start collaborations with the Marsico Lung Institute and really try and understand what cell types are being infected and what's happening with them.

These are our core mouse users and so these people are going to work on developing mouse models of disease.

- [Narrator] Successful vaccines, create a protective immune response in the body.

Let's go back to the board to see just how that happens.

- And when the virus infects you, you make a protein called an antibody.

And the goal of that antibody is to bind to the virus particle and prevent it from binding into that receptor and prevent it from infecting that cell.

- [Narrator] The Baric Lab's research was also central to the creation and clinical trials of the antiviral drug, Remdesivir.

Antiviral medicines prevent the development of severe disease.

Similar drugs are in the pipeline.

- We're scientists, but what drives us really, and people in this field is really public health, right?

Yes, we are interested in the minutia of how does the virus get in?

How does it replicate?

We're interested in all those little details, but the reason we're interested in them is because it translates to public health, to what's happening in people.

And what can we do to help mitigate the disease burden, the suffering among people.

- [Narrator] It was an all hands on deck approach and it turned Chapel Hill into a lab bench to bedside place of research.

- Lots of interaction, especially as people moved in from other research areas where they maybe didn't understand quite how Coronaviruses work, but they had some ideas about lung biology or clotting or other aspects of disease processes.

And they needed to talk to people like Ralph, so that they could really make sure that they're thinking about the nature of the disease process, correctly.

Is the virus in the brain?

Well, would you expect that to happen or is the virus targeting different tissues?

And a lot of these sort of things, we're still trying to get the answers to.

- [Narrator] Baric's work saved countless lives and gave the world hope, at a time it was desperately needed.

Because of that Baric was given the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest honor for a faculty member in the UNC system.

- And when the pandemic happened, he and his team were able to move into action right away because they had this knowledge of these viruses.

So not only could he understand the virus and work at the basic science level, but what Ralph does, it's really amazing is that he also cares about applying that knowledge to developing vaccines, developing treatments, helping people avoid these diseases.

He cares about individuals and populations and that's what's really public health.

- And what he has done, he and his colleagues have done will change the course of human history, certainly right now during COVID-19, but his work in infectious disease prepares us for the next challenge in this area that will surely present itself.

And I hope it is many, many, many, many years from now, but we will be better prepared because of Dr. Baric's work.

- You don't achieve these awards on your own, right?

I'm fortunate enough to work with a large number of extraordinarily competent and proficient professionals who care deeply about human health and have dedicated a tremendous amount of their time and energy to not only build their credentials, but to make me look smarter than I really am, [chuckling] quite frankly.

[chuckling]