Investigating the morphology and functional significance of filamentous influenza viruses

Influenza viruses are significant animal pathogens and pose a major zoonotic risk to humans as spillover events have resulted in devastating pandemics in the past. Virus structure and morphology has been linked to pathogenicity; however commonly used methods to study virus structure are often low through-put, or lack the resolution required to resolve virus particle features. To address this, we have developed a fluorescence super-resolution microscopy and rapid automated analysis pipeline to image many thousands of individual influenza virions at a time, gaining information on their size, morphology, and protein distribution. We aim to use this methodology to investigate influenza virus filament assembly, formation, structure, and function in living cells using advanced microscopy. We will investigate how filaments contribute towards increased virulence, the cellular mechanisms driving filament formation, the functional significance of Archetti bodies, and whether host factors involved in filament formation be targeted for influenza down regulation.