ESR10 – Understanding and exploiting host-pathogen interactions in tick-borne encephalitis virus

Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki (Finland) 
This is a structural biology project that focuses on understanding how flavivirus envelope proteins recognise and bind host factors. We will apply state of the art cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction (3DEM) to the complexes as well as X-ray crystallography (e.g. Shakeel et al. 2017 (http://rdcu.be/pybT); Shakeel et al. 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11387). The project will involve secondments to UK network partners for data collection (University of Leeds) and test laminin binding for preanalytical sample preparation for viruses at Elisha Systems Ltd.