Geometry of Viruses
York mathematician probes geometric route to combat
viruses
A mathematician at the University of
York has been awarded a Research Leadership Award of
more than £700,000 by the Leverhulme Trust to study the
geometry of viruses.
April 2, 2007. Source Press
Release
The University of York by Nicole Coates.
Dr Reidun Twarock, an Anniversary Reader in the
Departments of Biology and Mathematics, will study the
structure and assembly of viruses, which will help to
develop new anti-viral strategies.
Dr Twarock said: "I would like to use the Leverhulme
Trust Award to build up a group of mathematicians,
computational biologists and biophysicists to address a
portfolio of projects arising from these results."
Viruses have highly symmetrical external shells formed
from proteins that encapsulate the viral genome. Dr
Twarock has developed a method for encoding the
structures of these protein shells that pinpoint the
locations of the proteins and the bonds between them.
With collaborators Professor Cristian Micheletti, from
the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in
Trieste, Italy, and Professor Anne Taormina, from the
University of Durham, she has used these results to
model the assembly of viruses.
Subsequent work with collaborators Professor Peter
Stockley, Dr Neil Ranson and their groups at the Astbury
Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the
University of Leeds suggests that not only the geometry
of the viral capsids themselves but also the full
three-dimensional structures of the particles are
constrained. The implications of this discovery on virus
assembly are currently being investigated.
This grant will enable Dr Twarock to expand her group
and fund three postdoctoral positions and four PhD
students. The group will collaborate closely with the
Astbury Centre in Leeds, and they will jointly organise
a workshop on Mathematical Virology at the International
Centre for Mathematical Sciences in August 2007.
Dr Twarock’s group will be part of the York Centre of
Complex Systems Analysis (YCCSA), including biologists,
mathematicians and computer scientists, which is based
in the Department of Biology at York.
Notes to Editors:
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More information on Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership
Awards at
www.leverhulme.ac.uk/grants_awards/grants/Research_Leadership_Awards
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Dr Reidun Twarock joined the
Department of Mathematics at the University of York as a
Marie Curie Fellow in April 2000, working on the
mathematical structures of quasicrystals and fullerenes.
She then took up a Lectureship in the Centre for
Mathematical Sciences at City University in London,
where she applied similar mathematical techniques to
viruses particularly the structure of the cancer-causing
viruses in the family of Papovaviridae. Since 2004, Dr
Twarock has been an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow
working on mathematical models for viruses. In March
2005, she returned to the University of York as
Anniversary Reader jointly in Biology and Mathematics.
Her work on Mathematical Virology has recently been
showcased at the EPSRC-organised Engaging Maths event at
the House of Commons to draw attention to the importance
of mathematics research.
www.epsrc.ac.uk/Publications/Other/EngagingMaths.htm
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York Centre of Complex Systems Analysis (YCCSA) houses a
number of researchers and their groups, among them Dr
Leo Caves (Biology), Dr James Cussens (Computer
Science), Dr Jon Pitchford (Biology/Mathematics) and Dr
Julie Wilson (Chemistry/Mathematics), as well as two
recently appointed RCUK fellows, Dr Dan Franks
(Biology/Computer Science) and Dr Andrew (Jamie) Wood
(Biology/Mathematics). These scientists form part of the
larger cross-campus interdisciplinary community of YCCSA,
whose activities include an active programme of seminars
and an electronic forum for discussions and
announcements.
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