Research

Since the end of my freshman year, I have had the opportunity to work in the Conway lab in the Structural Biology Department of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. The Conway lab uses the methods of cryogenic electron microscopy and image reconstruction to produce high resolution structures of various macromolecules such as bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) and animal viruses, such as Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1). I have assisted in the data collection and analysis of several of the lab’s projects including the structure of the bacteriophage lambda tail tube in virion, ejected and purified bacteriophage tails, the high resolution structure of the bacteriophage lambda virion head, and the bacteriophage Det7 tail contraction induced by interaction with lipopolysaccharide and subsequent reconstruction of bacteriophage tail. Through the lab, I was able to contribute as a co-author in a scientific peer-review publication, and I also had the opportunity to present the research team’s work on the bacteriophage lambda virion head structure at the 2019 Biannual Phage/Viral Assembly.

Research Projects

  • Structure of Lambda Head

    High resolution structure of the major capsid protein and initial structure of portal protein complex of bacteriophage lambda

    • I assisted in the data collection and analysis of the bacteriophage lambda virion capsid and the portal complex.
    • I conducted modelization of the major capsid protein of the virion capsid as well as preliminary modelization of the portal protein complex.
    • I attended the XXVI Biennial Conference on Phage/Virus Assembly in Brained, Minnesota in July 2019 to present the lab’s work on the high resolution structure of the capsid of bacteriophage lambda as well as preliminary work on resolving the structure of the bacteriophage lambda portal protein complex. The PVA awards two trainees for excellence in scholarship as demonstrated in their poster presentation at the 2019 PVA meeting, and I was one of the awardees.

  • Mobile Loops and Electrostatic Interactions Maintain the Flexible Tailtube of Bacteriophage Lambda

    • I assisted in the collection and analyzation of data of the bacteriophage lambda tail for virion (infectious virus), ejected (post-infection virus), and plasmid purified  lambda tails.
    • I was a co-author for a peer-reviewed scientific publication of this work in the Journal of Molecular Biology: Paper Link

     

  • Structure of Det7 Contracted Tail

    • Grew Det7 bacteriophage in Salmonella bacteria & isolated/purified bacteriophage in order to prepare for electron microscopy
    • Conducted negative stain imaging & cryo-EM of Det7 samples
    • Used cryo-EM data to produce preliminary reconstruction of full-length and contracted tails