Virtual Virus

Supercomputers are helping us to understand how viruses invade cells in our body to replicate themselves. It’s a process so complex that it is difficult to observe directly. Real images of a flu virus, taken with an electron microscope, have been used to produce the 3D computer model, shown here. And, by applying massive computing power, it can even be animated so that researchers can track the 60 million atoms that make up a single virus. The result is a video of the virus in motion, which scientists can slow down to observe in detail. Here, the orange and cream protrusions on the surface represent proteins, which the virus uses as ‘keys’ to enter and exit the host cell. Scientists are particularly interested in understanding how the component proteins of new viruses are assembled inside the invaded cell, since this may provide targets for anti-viral drugs that disrupt the process.

Written by Mick Warwicker

Mick Warwicker

Writer

A freelance communications consultant and writer, Mick specialises in science and education. A science graduate and award-winning print and broadcast journalist, he was Head of Communications at Newcastle University from 2000–2011.

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• Daniel Parton
• Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Biochemistry Unit, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
• Courtesy of the Oxford University Biochemical Society magazine, Phenotype
• Winning image of Oxford University Press sponsored competition Snapshot