Targeted protein degradation (TPD) has emerged as a versatile antiviral approach by enabling the selective elimination of viral proteins and host factors required for viral replication. Unlike classical inhibition, degrader-based approaches act through event-driven removal of proteins, enabling interrogation of viral and host dependency pathways that are otherwise difficult to drug and offering routes to address resistance and target redundancy. Recent proof-of-concept studies illustrate that antiviral activity can be directly coupled to measurable intracellular degradation.

This Topical Collection aims to provide the research community with reproducible, visualized experimental methods that enable rigorous application of TPD in antiviral systems. The collection will highlight experimentally grounded workflows that directly demonstrate target engagement and protein degradation, and that connect these molecular events to antiviral-relevant cellular or infection phenotypes. Emphasis will be placed on methods that are transferable across laboratories, including assays for degrader-induced ternary complex formation, quantitative degradation kinetics and recovery, microscopy-based visualization of protein loss or relocalization, and functional infection-coupled readouts.

By curating and standardizing these approaches across diverse viral models and degrader modalities, this collection will lower technical barriers, improve reproducibility, and accelerate adoption of targeted protein degradation as a practical and mechanistically informative toolkit for antiviral research.