"They did. The first paper on this was out in September. Maybe a bit slow on the uptake, but do remember that it took a while to characterize exactly what sort of odd **** was going on with this virus, and then someone had to go get the money to study that, and start breaking it down."
I may have found some from even earlier.
Preprint:
17 May 2020
Distinct conformational states of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein
Yongfei Cai, Jun Zhang, Tianshu Xiao, Hanqin Peng, Sarah M Sterling, Richard M Walsh, Shaun Rawson, Sophia Rits-Volloch, Bing Chen [affiliations are all in the USA]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32511405....Published version. "***" emphasis is mine:
Published in Science: 25 Sep 2020
Distinct conformational states of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32694201....Here, we report two cryo-electron microscopy structures ***derived from a preparation of the full-length S protein***
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A paper originating exclusively from the official journal of the Chinese Pharmacological Society and Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences:
Published in Nature: 03 August 2020
Structural and functional properties of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: potential antivirus drug development for COVID-19
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41401-0....In this review, we highlight recent research advance in the structure, function and development of antivirus drugs targeting the S protein.