PhD Opportunity – Cryogenic correlated light and electron tomography of virally infected cells

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Outline and techniques used: We use cryo-CLEM/cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to study the complex relationships between viruses and the host cell during infection.

Our lab has access to the Scottish Centre for Macromolecular Imagining (SCMI) where we use cutting-edge instrumentation, such as the JEOL CRYO ARM 300 electron microscope and the Leica THUNDER Imager EM cryo-CLEM microscope. This technology allows us to target events that happen deep in the cell so we can see more of the context of virions, including their interactions with cellular organelles.

Ultimately, we want to capture the entire virus life cycle, from assembly of its pieces to maturation (with dramatic internal structural changes), to budding, to fusion with a target cell, and then through more transformations as the viral genome passages into the cell’s cytoplasm, all while hijacking the host cell machinery. We work with a range of viruses, including Rift Valley Fever Virus, Bunyamwera virus (BUNV) and herpes simplex virus (HSV).

Project aims: Developing in situ imaging techniques to image virus infection at high-resolution using cryo-ET. The creation of viral variants that contain and/or can create unnatural amino acids in their own viral proteins and imaging BUNV replication factories using cryogenic focused ion beam (FIB) milling.

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