Structural Virology

Mavis Agbandje-McKenna is currently Director of the Center for Structural Biology and Associate Professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She obtained her BSc (Hons) in Human Biology and Chemistry from the University of Hertfordshire and a PhD in Biophysics at the University of London Institute of Cancer Research. Her postdoctoral research was at Purdue University before she was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. Robert McKenna obtained his BSc (Physics and Biology) and PhD in Crystallography from the University of London. His postdoctoral research was at Purdue University before he accepted the post of Warwick Research Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick. He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Introduction: Principles of Virus Structure;Section 1Methodologies for Structural Analysis of Viruses;

Production and Purification of Viruses for Structural Studies;

Microscopic (Confocal) Analysis of Viral Entry and Infection;

Cryo-electron Microscopy of Virus Infection - Tomography and Asymmetric Structure Determination;

Cryo-electron Microscopy of Viruses - 3D of Virus Capsids;

X-ray Crystallography of Virus Capsids;

Structural Studies of Viral Proteins;

Probing Viral Capsid Structures in Solution;

Section 2Structure to Function Correlation for Viruses;

Evolution of Viral Capsid Structures - the Three Domains of Life;

Mechanisms of Virus Capsid Assembly;

Mechanisms of Genome Packaging;

Attachment and Viral entry - Receptor Recognition in Viral Pathogenesis;

Attachment and Entry - Viral Cell Fusion;

Virus Antibody Recognition;

Section 3Therapeutic Strategies Based on Viral Structures;

Development of anti-HIV drugs;

Design of Influenza Vaccines and Antiviral Agents;

Engineering Viral Capsids as Nano Tools;

Viral Vectors for Gene Delivery;