Capturing highly dynamic beasts: Integrative characterisation of dynamic viral complexes using cryo-EM, NMR, MD, and molecular virology

The goal of this project is to understand the structure and dynamics of the replication
machinery in hepatitis C virus (HCV). This is an enormous structural challenge as it
involves several challenging proteins and RNA. The distinct structural features of
various protein domains (membrane-associated/cytosolic, structured/disordered),
coupled with their highly dynamic nature, all contribute to the enormous structural
challenge of characterising this complex. The student will elucidate the structural
details of RNA replication in HCV by bringing together diverse approaches such as
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR), cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM),
and Molecular Dynamics simulations (MD), with in-cell virology assays.