MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT EECS

1994 (Fall Semester)

Colloquium Series

Monday, September 26, 1994

Bonnie Berger

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Department of Mathematics

THE MATHEMATICS OF VIRUS SHELL ASSEMBLY

Viruses have shells made of repeated protein subunits surrounding their genetic information. Many viruses, including polio, herpes, and AIDS, have icosahedral-shaped shells. It is not understood how these shells self-assemble from hundreds of similar protein subunits. A resolution to this quesiton is important because it could result in mechanisms for interrupting shell formation and interfering with the infection process. In the talk, I will describe surprisingly simple sets of local rules that may explain the self-assembly of nearly all icosahedral viruses, including two whose structures have puzzled researchers. With these local rules, we can simulate the assembly process computationally, and design a "toolkit" that will allow biologists to study virus shell assembly on a computer screen.

This is joint work with Peter Shor, Lisa Tucker-Kellogg, and Jonathan King.

4-5 PM
Grier Room (34-401)
Refreshments 3:30