Flu Virtual Virus

‘Virtual virus’ unfolds the flu on a CPU

Their research is 'nothing to sneeze at,' the researchers suggest

February 10, 2015

Future simulation work will involve the influenza A virus in close apposition with a host cell membrane (credit: H. Koldsø/Oxford)

By combining experimental data from X-ray crystallography,NMR spectroscopy, cryoelectron microscopy and lipidomics(the study of cellular lipid networks), researchers at theUniversity of Oxford have built a complete model of the outer envelope of an influenza A virion for the first time.

The simulation may help scientists better understand how the virus survives in the wild or find new ways to combat it.

The approach, known as a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, has allowed them to generate trajectories at different temperatures and lipid compositions, revealing various characteristics about the membrane components./.../