Dedication for Alke Meents, recipient of Björn H. Wiik Prize 2022

Dr. Alke Meents was awarded the 2022 Bjorn Wiik Prize. The leader of the Biomolecular Crystallography group at CFEL received this recognition for his advancements of X-ray crystallography and performing the world’s largest search for antiviral compounds against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The campaign discovered several potent inhibitors which are currently undergoing further trials.

Alke Meents received his doctorate in Physics in 2005 from the University of Hamburg for his work on the crystallisation of proteins using magnetic fields. After a postdoc at SLS/PSI in Switzerland, he joined DESY to design and build the bio-imaging and diffraction beamline, P11 at PETRA III. After successfully establishing the beamline, with many new innovations in X-ray optics, X-ray microscopy, and automated crystallography, he started a group at CFEL to extend and apply high-speed serial crystallography at synchrotron radiation facilities and free-electron lasers.

Soon after the pandemic broke out, Alke initiated and led a massive high-throughput drug screening campaign, using the innovations he had developed at P11, to find potential inhibitors against proteases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The effort identified two compounds (out of more than 6000 trials) that were effective inhibitors. Today, with collaborators in pharmacology, structural biology, and cell biology, Alke continues to improve the efficacy of compounds against the Corona virus. This activity has received a lot of attention in the literature and in the professional community. He also proposed and is building a dedicated high-throughput macromolecular crystallographic screening beamline at PETRA III.