Dear All,

We are going to have our next LSS cancer/stem cell sub-group discussion on March 30th. We are trying to invite researchers from fields other than cancer, stem cell biology to build up broader communications. The speaker of this event is Dr. Long Li from Dr. Tom Rapoport lab at HMS. He will talk about his beautiful work on virus processing. Dr. Li is an excellent researcher and has very strong publications (One science paper in 2008 and one nature paper in 2010). Below is the detail info for this event.



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LSS Cancer / Stem Cell group event

Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm, Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Location: Room 304, JimmyFund Building, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, 02115 MA

Speaker: Dr. Long Li

Organizer: HMS-CSSA

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Here is the abstract for his talk:

Intracellular cleavage of immature flaviviruses is a critical step in assembly that generates the membrane fusion potential of the E glycoprotein. With cryo–electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography we show that the immature dengue particles undergo a reversible conformational change at low pH that renders them accessible to furin cleavage. At a pH of 6.0, the E proteins are arranged in a herringbone pattern with the pr peptides docked onto the fusion loops, a configuration similar to that of the mature virion. After cleavage, the dissociation of pr is pH-dependent, suggesting that in the acidic environment of the trans-Golgi network pr is retained on the virion to prevent membrane fusion. These results suggest a mechanism by which flaviviruses are processed and stabilized in the host cell secretory pathway.

For more information, please contact: cssa@hms-cssa.org.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Cheers

HMS-CSSA