Post by Shadow on Jan 27, 2006 21:34:13 GMT -5
BBC
Scientists have created a map showing the 3D structure of the virus which causes Aids.
The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said in the journal Structure.
So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses, that are 60 times smaller than red blood cells, and used a computer program to combine them.
Oxford University's Professor Stephen Fuller said the 3D map would assist in understanding how the virus grows.
Unusual features
He told the BBC: "You say can you show me the structure of the HIV virus and the question is which one.
"HIV is very variable. It varied in diameter by a factor of three."
The way the research team, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, dealt with this was by taking multiple images at different tilts.
Working with colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich, they took about 100 images of 70 individual HIV viruses and then looked at similarities.
Despite the variability, the team found some consistent features.
Scientists have created a map showing the 3D structure of the virus which causes Aids.
The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said in the journal Structure.
So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses, that are 60 times smaller than red blood cells, and used a computer program to combine them.
Oxford University's Professor Stephen Fuller said the 3D map would assist in understanding how the virus grows.
Unusual features
He told the BBC: "You say can you show me the structure of the HIV virus and the question is which one.
"HIV is very variable. It varied in diameter by a factor of three."
The way the research team, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, dealt with this was by taking multiple images at different tilts.
Working with colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich, they took about 100 images of 70 individual HIV viruses and then looked at similarities.
Despite the variability, the team found some consistent features.