一份來自英國的消息指出，著名的利華休姆信托 (Leverhulme Trust),，將頒發(fā)一項(xiàng)杰出研究獎(jiǎng) (Research Leadership Award),，給從事病毒幾何學(xué) (viruses geometry)研究的學(xué)者 Reidun Twarock博士。
據(jù)了解獲獎(jiǎng)的 Twarock博士,，屬于約克大學(xué)(University of York) 生物數(shù)學(xué)學(xué)系(Departments of Biology and Mathematics) 的科學(xué)家,，Twarock 博士還是該大學(xué)的年度學(xué)者，長久以來領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的研究團(tuán)隊(duì),，透過了解病毒結(jié)構(gòu)的方式,，發(fā)展具有潛力的抗病毒方法。
Twarock 博士表示,，病毒粒子是一個(gè)具有高度對(duì)稱性的立體結(jié)構(gòu),，病毒透過其所攜帶的DNA 分子，架構(gòu)外殼的蛋白分子,，那么如果可以透過結(jié)構(gòu)的信息,，利用數(shù)學(xué)的方法輔助，很有可能從病毒的外殼,，就可以找到破解病毒的方法,，那么對(duì)于現(xiàn)階段抗病毒的藥物研究，應(yīng)該會(huì)有很大的幫助,。
目前 Twarock博士打算用該杰出研究獎(jiǎng)所獲贈(zèng)的七十萬美金,，成立一個(gè)新的研究計(jì)劃，以加速病毒幾何學(xué)等相關(guān)領(lǐng)域的研究發(fā)展,。
(資料來源 : Bio.com)
英文原文：
bio.com/newsfeatures
York Mathematician Probes Geometric Route to Combat Viruses
04/02/07 -- A mathematician at the University of York has been awarded a Research Leadership Award of more than $700,000 by the Leverhulme Trust to study the geometry of viruses.
Dr Reidun Twarock, an Anniversary Reader in the Departments of Biology and Mathematics, will study the structure and assembly of viruses, which will help to develop new anti-viral strategies.
Viruses have highly symmetrical external shells formed from proteins that encapsulate the viral genome. Dr Twarock has developed a method for encoding the structures of these protein shells that pinpoint the locations of the proteins and the bonds between them. With collaborators Professor Cristian Micheletti, from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, and Professor Anne Taormina, from the University of Durham, she has used these results to model the assembly of viruses.
Subsequent work with collaborators Professor Peter Stockley, Dr Neil Ranson and their groups at the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds suggests that not only the geometry of the viral capsids themselves but also the full three-dimensional structures of the particles are constrained. The implications of this discovery on virus assembly are currently being investigated.
Dr Twarock said: "I would like to use the Leverhulme Trust Award to build up a group of mathematicians, computational biologists and biophysicists to address a portfolio of projects arising from these results."
This grant will enable Dr Twarock to expand her group and fund three postdoctoral positions and four PhD students. The group will collaborate closely with the Astbury Centre in Leeds, and they will jointly organise a workshop on Mathematical Virology at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in August 2007.
Dr Twarock's group will be part of the York Centre of Complex Systems Analysis (YCCSA), including biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists, which is based in the Department of Biology at York.
Source: University of York
