Introduction

Nanoparticle description and tracking in virology and drug delivery

Our work aims to understand the structure, assembly and function of biological macromolecule complexes. We embed unstained, unfixed specimens in vitreous ice to preserve their structures. Transmission cryo-electron microscopy is then used to visualize the specimens, but the images recorded are difficult to interpret because they are projections of the specimen degraded by noise. Thus we computationally combine images of the specimen viewed from different angles enabling us to reconstruct a three-dimensional model. Any inherent symmetry present in the structure is also used in this averaging. This method is particularly useful for objects that are too large, unstable or variable to be studied by X-ray crystallography or NMR, such as enveloped viruses.

Research Interests: Assembly and structure determination of viruses, drug delivery,  self-assembly, cryoelectron microscopy, image processing, crystallography

If you are interested in the Structural biology services offered in Helsinki University, please check out the web pages for cryoEM,  for NMR, for X-ray crystallography, and for biocomplex purification

Sarah is one of the “responsible professors” of the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, she has a regular Friday morning slots for student consultation at 08:00 and 08:30 Sign up by email.