What makes the coronavirus so deadly? Why is it so contagious? How far away are we from a cure? Professor John Nicholls, Clinical Professor in Pathology at the University of Hong Kong was a key member of the research team at the University of Hong Kong which isolated and characterised the novel SARS coronavirus which was associated with the global outbreak of 2003. He has been published in Lancet, Nature Medicine and several leading research journals and is, significantly, looking at viral binding sites in the respiratory tract. This is critical in the context of COVID-19 and its potential impact on the respiratory track of patients.