Microscopy technique views viruses in their natural habitat

According to the group, the technique is a major advancement toward the ultimate goal of imaging biological processes in action at the atomic level.

“It’s sort of like the difference between seeing Han Solo frozen in carbonite and watching him walk around blasting stormtroopers,” said Deborah Kelly, an assistant professor at the VTC Research Institute.

What’s missing in the field of structural biology right now is dynamics

“Seeing viruses, for example, in action in their natural environment is invaluable.”

The technique involves taking two silicon-nitride microchips with windows etched in their centers and pressing them together until only a 150-nanometer space between them remains.

The researchers then fill this pocket with a liquid resembling the natural environment of the biological structure to be imaged, creating a microfluidic chamber.

Then, because free-floating structures yield images with poor resolution, the researchers coat the microchip’s interior surface with a layer of natural biological tethers, such as antibodies, which naturally grab onto a virus and hold it in place.

In the study, recently published in Lab on a Chip, Kelly joined Sarah McDonald, also an assistant professor at the VTC Research Institute, to prove that the technique works. McDonald provided a pure sample of rotavirus double-layered particles for the study.

“What’s missing in the field of structural biology right now is dynamics - how things move in time,” said McDonald. “Debbie is developing technologies to bridge that gap, because that’s clearly the next big breakthrough that structural biology needs.”

The next step is to continue to develop the technique with an eye toward imaging biological structures dynamically in action.

Specifically, McDonald is looking to understand how rotavirus assembles, so as to better know and develop tools to combat this particular enemy of children’s health.