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X-Rays Take Groundbreaking Virus Portrait

Eric Bland, Discovery News

The researchers selected a herpes virus because of its relatively large size (100 to 200 nanometers) and its medical significance. They put the virus into the synchrotron and then aimed X-rays at the sample. A camera on the other side detected the slight variations in light exiting the other side, and a computer algorithm pieced the image back together.

In doing so, Miao and his team created the first picture of a single, unstained virus, which was also three orders of magnitude smaller than images obtained with other techniques.

Other pictures of cells and viruses can be obtained by drying them and slicing very thin sections, then piecing them back together, but the process can destroy important information.

Right now the pictures are still fairly grainy at a resolution of 22 nanometers, but the scientists say more powerful X-rays, being developed at Stanford University and in Germany, will create more detailed images of the structure of even smaller proteins and cells.

Those images would be a boon for drug researchers, said Miao.

"From the structure of a protein one can understand the protein's function," he said. "Then we can develop drugs to deactivate that protein."

Thomas Earnest from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory thinks that while Miao's method will never reach the atomic resolution that X-ray crystallography achieves, it is nevertheless an important development.

"This approach for looking at biological specimens or protein complexes is very valuable," he said. "I'm really excited about this work. John is doing a great service to the entire biological community."

Related Links:

Eric Bland's blog: Interior Design

How Stuff Works: X-Rays

The SPring-8 Synchrotron