Challenges of Virus Crystallography

 

David Stuart

 

The Division of Structural Biology and The Oxford Protein Production Facility, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, United Kingdom

 

 

The crystallographic analysis of crystals of virus particles was begun, in hope, before computers were invented, but the analysis of virus structures at high resolution came much later, after all sorts of technical advances. The technical advances in structural biology continue at a breathtaking rate and viruses still provide challenges that stimulate these advances. I will chart some of the recent developments and indicate what might happen next. I will do this in the context of our attempts to understand whole virus particle structure and function sufficiently deeply that we can, with the aid of the latest technology, and with suitable computational tools, control conformational transitions for therapeutic purposes. To this end we are currently targeting a number of small RNA viruses and I will hope to convince you that we are now at the stage where complete virus particles are excellent targets for rational, structure-guided, drug and vaccine design.