Christopher O. Barnes (born September 23, 1986) is an American chemist who is an assistant professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he studied the structure of the

coronavirus spike protein Spike (S) glycoprotein (sometimes also called spike protein, formerly known as E2) is the largest of the four major structural proteins found in coronaviruses. The spike protein assembles into trimers that form large structures, called spike ...

and the antibodies that attack them. He was named one of ten "Scientists to watch" by ''

Science News ''Science News (SN)'' is an American bi-weekly magazine devoted to articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. History ''Science News'' has been published since 1 ...

'' in 2022.

Early life and education

Barnes grew up in

Huntersville, North Carolina Huntersville is a large suburban town in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States. A part of the Charlotte metropolitan area, the population was 61,376 at the 2020 census, making Huntersville the 15th largest municipality in North Caroli ...

. He attended

North Mecklenburg High School North Mecklenburg High School is a high school in Huntersville, North Carolina. The school mascot is the Viking, and the school colors are royal blue, red, and white. Founded in 1951, the school was integrated during the 1960s. The principal is ...

. As a teenager, he competed in the science olympiad. He was an undergraduate at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, where he was involved with the

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team. During his senior year, he was named the top student athlete. Although he had initially applied to study medicine, he changed his mind after being introduced to biophysics by

Gary J. Pielak Gary J. Pielak (born July 17, 1955) is an American Biochemistry, biological chemist who is known for developing quantitative techniques for measuring protein structure, Protein folding, stability, diffusion, and concentration in living cells, ...

. He was a bachelor's student in psychology, and moved to chemistry for his graduate studies. In 2010 he moved to the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, where he started researching molecular pharmacology. He looked into

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

transcription using crystallographic techniques and electron microscopy. After earning his doctorate, Barnes started investigating the structure of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and the antibodies that attack it. He looked to understand how the virus contacts/enters cells to better inform the design of therapeutics.

Research and career

Barnes was a postdoctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology when the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

started. He was working alongside

Pamela J. Bjorkman Pamela Jane Bjorkman NAS, AAAS (also spelled Pamela J. Björkman born 1956 in Portland, Oregon) is an American biochemist. She is the David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Calte ...

, who challenged him to uncover the structure of immune proteins that would attack

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

. Barnes used high-resolution imaging to better understand coronavirus spike proteins and the antibodies that attack them. He used cryo-electron microscopy, and identified several antibodies that attach to the receptor binding domain on the coronavirus spike protein. He defined an antibody classification system to determine where on the receptor binding domain that the antibody attaches. Barnes continued to work on antibody structure when he established his own laboratory at

. These antibodies target the N-terminal domain. He is interested in identifying antibodies that can attack all coronaviruses. In September 2022 ''

'' named Barnes one of ten "Scientists to watch".

Awards and honors

* 2017

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Hanna H. Gray Fellow * 2022 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar

Selected publications

* * *

Personal life

Christopher is married to scientist Naima G. Sharaf and has two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Christopher 1986 births Living people People from Huntersville, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Stanford University Department of Chemistry faculty 21st-century American chemists Structural biologists