Speaker: Sam Hess, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics / Cooperating Professor of Chemistry, University of Maine
About the seminar: Super-resolution microscopy has enabled entirely new approaches to understanding biological systems, and was recognized in the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. We use FPALM (S.T. Hess et al. Biophysical Journal, 2006) to explore the mechanisms of influenza and SARS-CoV2 infection, targeting the spike proteins hemagglutinin (HA) and S, respectively, which catalyze viral binding and entry through membrane fusion. Since fusion requires clustering of HA or S at the nanoscale, FPALM is ideally suited to image the viral spike protein clusters and their interactions with host cell components. Improved understanding of the mechanism of clustering can identify new anti-viral drug targets. We showed recently (N.M. Curthoys et al. Biophysical Journal 2019) that influenza HA interacts with the host cell lipid phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate (PIP2) and preliminary results show a similar pattern for PIP2 and S from SARS-CoV2. We then found that the drug cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), found in many consumer products, is able to disrupt membrane association of PIP-binding proteins, disperse influenza HA clusters in cell culture, and is able to improve survival of zebrafish infected with influenza virus (P. Raut et al., Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, in press).
The event is free but registration is required. Please use this link to register for the Zoom event.