BBMB Research Seminars
September 18, 2008
Mark Young
Montana State Univeristy
"Weird Viruses of Thermophilic Organisms in Yellowstone National Park"
1414 Molecular Biology Buidling
4:40 p.m.
My research interests with viruses span a broad diversity,ranging from fundamental questions of virus structure/function relationships, virus ecology and evolution, to their use of in nanotechnology. My undergraduate training at UC Berkeley was in Biochemistry (Bs; 1980) and Soils & Plant Nutrition (Bs.; 1980). I completed my Ph.D at UC Davis (1987) where my research focused on the characterization of the dsDNA virus CaMV and satellite RNAs with Bob Shepherd and George Bruening. I traveled to Canberra Australia for a post doc at CSIRO where I worked on Barley yellow dwarf virus and catalytic RNAs (1987-1990). In 1990 I accepted a faculty position in the structural biology group within the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University (1990-1994). At Purdue University my research focused on the structural and chemical basis of virus assembly and disassembly. In 1994, I moved to Montana State University and moved through the ranks to Professor of Plant Sciences and Microbiology. My research at MSU has two major components; (i) the isolation and molecular characterization of unusual archaeal viruses from high temperature environments (>80C) and (ii) the understanding and application of viruses and other protein cage architectures as biotemplates for materials synthesis. My research program is supported by grants from NIH, NSF, NASA, DoD, and DOE. I have also served as the founder and Director of the MSU Thermal Biology Institute (1997-2005) and as Director of the Montana NSF EPSCoR Program (1997-current).
Abstract
We have developed viruses and other protein cage architectures that can serve as robust biotemplates for materials synthesis with applications in medicine, electronics and catalysis. We have shown that materials synthesized within the protein cage are size and shape constrained by the interior dimensions of the cage architectures. Through chemical and genetic manipulation of the protein subunits cage we can impart function by design to the cage architecture, creating new multifunctional materials. I will present recent results on our understating of material synthesis within the protein cage architectures as well as modified protein cage architectures with applications in medicine.
Selected publications:
Douglas, T., and Young, M.J. 1998. Host -guest encapsulation of materials by assembled virus protein cages. Nature 393: 152-155.
Douglas and M. Young "Viruses: making friends with old foes." Science (2006) 312: 873-875.
M. Uchida, M. T. Klem, M. Allen, P. Suci, M. Flenniken, E. Gillitzer, Z. Varpness, L. O. Liepold, M. Young and T. Douglas "Biological containers: Protein cages as multifunctional nanoplatforms." Advanced Materials (2007) 19(8): 1025-1042.
L.O. Liepold, S. Anderson, D. Willits, L. Oltrogge, J.A. Frank, T. Douglas, and M. Young "Viral Capsids as MRI
contrast agents" Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2007) 58(5):871-880.
P. A. Suci, D. L. Berglund, L. Liepold, S. Brumfield, B. Pitts, W. Davison, L. Oltrogge, K. O. Hoyt, S. Codd, P. S. Stewart, M. Young and T. Douglas "High-density targeting of a viral multifunctional nanoplatform to a pathogenic, biofilm-forming bacterium." Chemistry & Biology (2007) 14(4): 387-398.
