Making Viruses, and Virus-Like Particles

Distinguished Professor William Gelbart
University of California, Los Angeles

Viruses are the simplest examples of evolving systems; at the same time, they are arguably the deadliest disease agents. Unlike any living system, they have, for example, been reconstituted in vitro from purified components and -- in most cases -- their structures have high symmetry, most often icosahedral. Also, whereas the genomes of living organisms are exclusively double-stranded (ds) DNA molecules, the genomes of viruses are predominantly single-stranded (ss) RNA, a molecule with very different physical properties.

All viruses involve a genome packaged inside a protein shell, some with an extra layer of protection in the form of a lipid bilayer envelope. In this talk I discuss the physical considerations involved in making viruses "from scratch" and what these experiments can tell us about in vivo viral "life cycles". I also describe our ongoing efforts to synthesize "artificial viruses" and "virus-like particles", featuring the physical differences between dsDNA (a stiff, linear, polyelectrolyte), ssRNA (flexible, branched), and charged homopolymers (flexible, linear).

Date:  Thursday, April 24, 2008
Engineering Bldg, Unit 2, Room 138
Time: 3:45 PM
Coffee served in the Physics Bldg. - Barkas Lounge @ 3:10 PM