As people around the world contend with illnesses caused by viruses, including this year's strain of the flu or influenza, researchers continue to study how viruses work and how they manage to invade living cells in everything from bacteria to human organs. University of Texas researchers recently collaborated on an innovative technique that allowed them to see a virus in the act of infecting a cell.
At the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Jun Liu uses a powerful electron microscope to examine E. coli bacteria and the tiny T-7 virus that infects them.
Liu says until now, scientists could only speculate on how this virus injected its genetic material into another cell, because it happens in an instant.
“Before they inject in, they do not have a channel. After they inject in, they actually degrade the channel, so you never have a chance to see it,” Liu said.
But in a collaborative study with other University of Texas colleagues, Liu used the electron microscope to examine quick-frozen solutions full of bacteria and viruses.
“Because when you freeze it, it is kind of like a snapshot that captures some intermediate stage. This is one of the highlights of this study, because we captured this intermediate stage that nobody had seen before,” Liu said.
This sophisticated technology was applied to a particular virus in this study, but what the researchers found could be useful in studying other viruses in the future, viruses that cause many diseases, such as influenza, or AIDS.
That is the hope of study participant Ian Molineux, professor of biology at the University of Texas main campus in Austin, who prepared the virus samples used in the study.
“If we can find a way of blocking any of multiple steps towards the final internalization of the genetic material, it provides the potential for finding more anti-viral drugs,” Molineux said.
An animation, produced for Science magazine by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, shows how the virus puts out tendrils to, in effect, “walk” on the cell surface.
"Then it stops moving and all the legs come down and get fixed on the cell surface, and the infection begins to initiate," Molineux said.
Molineux says the collaborative effort with Liu and others paid off, with each member of the team bringing his own area of expertise into play.
“We have a very strong collaboration. We are looking at other viruses now,” Molineux said.
He says each advance in understanding how viruses function brings researchers closer to finding ways to defeat them - and save lives.
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 1 Our Body and Healthy Habits》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 4 Fine Arts—Western Chinese and Pop Arts》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 5 Newspapers and Magazines》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 2 My New Teachers》(外研版必修1)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 1 Deep South》(外研版版选修8)
高考英语VOA精选听力第一版(MP3音频素材):LAs Ice Age Fossils FOR WEB fixed 20fps 256k wtag
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 6 The Internet and Telecommunications》(外研版必修1)
高三英语备考总复习课件人教版选修8:写作进行时-开放式作文 18张
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 2 No Drugs》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 6 The World’s Cultural Heritage》(外研版版选修7)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 5 A Lesson in a Lab》(外研版必修1)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 6 Old and New》(外研版必修3)
梅姨请川普去做客,大半个英国不干了
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 5 Great People and Great Inventions of Ancient Chinan》(外研版必修3)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 6 Films and TV Programmes》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 3 Music》(外研版必修2)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 2 Developing and Developed Countries》(外研版必修3)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 4 Which English?》(外研版版选修8)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 2 The Renaissance》(外研版版选修8)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 5 Ethnic Culture》(外研版版选修7)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 4 Sandstorms in Asia》(外研版必修3)
面对困境,战胜自己,继续前进!
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 4 A Social Survey—My Neighbourhood》(外研版必修1)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 3 The violence of nature》(外研版必修3)
腹黑小哥神吐槽前任分手信 论据不足、错字连篇
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 4 Music Born in America》(外研版版选修7)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 6 Unexplained Mysteries of the Natural World》(外研版必修4)
看英剧学口语:英语里的“唉声叹气”
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 2 Fantasy Literature—Philip Pullman》(外研版选修6)
高考英语一轮复习精品课件《Module 3 Literature》(外研版版选修7)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |