Patrick W. Mantyh, Principal Investigator

Molecular Mechanisms of Bone Cancer Pain

These researchers are working on the assembly and maturation of the bacterial virus phi29. Ongoing efforts are to determine the structure and function of various components of the molecular machine responsible for packing the viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) genome into a preformed protein shell, or prohead. A crucial component of these efforts is the production of cryo-electron microscopic (cryo-EM) reconstructions. Much of these researchers’ previous work has made use of expertise at other institutions. In order to enhance the quality of their efforts, these researchers are developing their own expertise in impact reconstruction. They are using software available in the Basic Sciences Computing Laboratory to undertake image reconstruction of a variety of components of the phi29 virus. The main goals of this project are to improve the resolution of structures currently under investigation, and to begin new work on the study of structural symmetry mismatches in the components of the molecular machine.