Molecular Dynamics of the Bird Flu Virus

This project takes a look at one of the scientific approaches that researchers use to study Bird Flu virus.

Flu is a common viral infection of lungs that affects millions of people annually and a leading cause of death in the United States. Research on the influenza virus will provide information to design strategies for early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the disease as well as better design antiviral drugs and antibodies against the virus.

Flu virus enters the epithelial cells of lung via binding of the hemagglutinin(HA) protein on the surface of the virus particle. HA is also the main antigen that human immune system recognizes and responds to by making antibodies and mounting immune response.

We will takeĀ  the protein sequence of Hemagglutinin gene from protein data bank, visualize it in a protein structure viewer, and then simulate the structural changeĀ  of the protein using molecular dynamics packages NAMD and VMD.


ANIMATIONS

SI2008

SI2007


REFERENCES

Avian Flu:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5N1

Concepts to learn:
the molecular structure, and life cycle of a flu virus

Molecular Biology:
Any introductory textbook in molecular biology

Concepts to learn:
structures of biological molecules (DNA, RNA, protein, lipid membrane) protein membraneinteraction

Using UNIX at OSC:
Introductory UNIX: http://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/training/bunix/
Batch processing: http://www.osc.edu/supercomputing/training/batch/

Molecular Dynamics:
http://www.ch.embnet.org/MD_tutorial/index.html

VMD and NAMD tutorials:
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu


Yuan Zhang is the group leader for the Molecular Structure of Flu Virus project. Her office is in 420-17, phone 614-292-7259.


For assistance, write si-contact@osc.edu or call 614-292-0890.