IU chemists receive $2.9 million grant

A group of IU chemists was awarded a $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study how virus parts arrange themselves into fully-formed viruses.

The funding will be spent on building a center in Bloomington geared specifically to clarify the process of virus self-assembly.

Drs. Martin F. Jarrold, Bogdan Dragnea, Stephen C. Jacobson, Peter J. Ortoleva, James P. Reilly and their collaborators at the IU Nanoscience Center and Indiana University’s Center for Cell and Virus Theory will be working to unravel the mystery behind this phenomenon by observing the stages of virus replication.

“There must be something about the design of their proteins that make them self-assemble,” Jarrold said. “What directs them to beat the randomness is not yet known.”

Dragnea explained how chemistry is integral to furthering their research about viruses.

“A virus is made up of molecules and self-assembles, coming together like a soccer ball,” he said. “That’s a chemical reaction.”

The researchers are excited about potential medical advances the study offers. Dragnea said one possibility is a less traumatizing and more effective treatment for cancer.

Now, chemotherapy treatment attacks both cancerous and surrounding benign cells. The chemists hope that learning more about how viruses form will lead to discoveries in methods that would  deliver anti-cancer drugs directly into the concerning cells, without affecting neighboring, benign cells.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will provide researchers with anti-cancer drugs to put inside the viruses, Dragnea said.

But Jacobson cautioned against being too far-sighted.

“It is a very long-term vision that you could possibly make viruses that target and deliver stuff to cells of interest,” he said.