Dr. Tyler Reddy
Department of Biochemistry
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK

Friday, January 24, 2014
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

There are several pleomorphic enveloped viruses that affect human health, including HIV, Ebola virus, Rabies virus, Hepatitis C, and the influenza virus that is the focus of our work. Influenza epidemics are seasonal in temperate climates, and yet the precise underlying cause of seasonality remains controversial. One strain of avian influenza has a projected survival time of 3.6 years in water at 4 oC, and influenza survival on bank notes is strongly dependent on the liquid medium employed for deposition. These and other examples serve as a prime motivation for biophysical analysis of the full- scale flu virion and the effect of its environment on stability at the molecular level. We have constructed a computational model of a full-scale flu virion, and performed a series of microsecond-length coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. I have also recently produced a full-scale model of a dengue virion using a creative approach.