Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry | PI: Janet Iwasa, PhD

Visualizing the SARS-CoV-2 Life Cycle

SARS-CoV-2 is defining disease of the current era. Many biological researchers have redirected their focus to understanding and defeating the virus, rapidly leading to new insights into how the virus gains access to and hijacks human cells. University of Utah Health investigator Janet Iwasa, PhD, and colleagues have used this information to create detailed molecular animations of different stages of the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle. Continue reading → Visualizing the SARS-CoV-2 Life Cycle
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry | PI: Wesley I. Sundquist, PhD

A Potent, Long-lasting HIV Capsid Inhibitor

Reverse transcription and integration are key events in retrovirus replication and are also targets of successful anti-HIV therapies. Reverse transcription creates a double-stranded DNA copy of the viral RNA genome, and integration archives that copy within the genome of the infected cell. However, studies of the mechanisms underlying these steps of the viral life cycle remain challenging because these processes are performed by viral core particles located deep within the infected cell cytoplasm and nucleus. Continue reading → A Potent, Long-lasting HIV Capsid Inhibitor