ACADEMIC BIO

• A.B. (Honors) 1996, Harvard University
• Ph.D. 2001, Johns Hopkins University

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Viruses undergo dramatic structural reorganizations at many critical stages of their life cycles, including during host cell invasion, genome expulsion, assembly, and cell egress. The changes often involve concerted changes among hundreds of protein components and, in the case of enveloped viruses, membranes as well. From this perspective, virions are intricate, nano-scale cell-invasion and replication machines. The dynamic structural transitions are attractive targets for anti-viral therapeutics that would "throw a spanner into the works" and arrest viral infections.

We use a suite of biophysical, structural, and biochemical techniques including X-ray scattering, cryo-electron microscopy, and fluorescence microscopy to understand the function of viral machinery. The viruses we study include influenza A virus, hepatitis B virus, and dsDNA bacteriophages.

RECENT SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Tang J, Lee KK, Bothner B, Baker TS, Yeager M, Johnson JE. "Stability and Dynamics in Maturation of a T=4 Virus." Journal of Molecular Biology. (2009) Accepted for Publication.


• Gertsman I, Gan L, Guttman M, Lee K, Speir JA, Duda RL, Hendrix RW, Komives EA, Johnson JE. "An Unexpected Twist in Viral Maturation." Nature 458:646-50 (2009).


• Lee KK, Gan L, Tsuruta H, Moyer C, Conway JF, Duda RL, Hendrix RW, Steven AC, Johnson JE. "Capsid Maturation is Driven by the Capture of Mobile Surface Loops." Structure 16:1491-502 (2008).


• Wikoff WR, Convway JF, Tang J, Lee KK, Gan L, Chang N, Duda RL, Hendrix RW, Steven AC, Johnson JE. "Time-resolved Molecular Dynamics of Virus Maturation Interpreted by Electron Cryo-microscopy and X-ray Crystallography." Journal of Structural Biology 153:300-6 (2006).