Contact information
Claire Morris
stuart-pa@strubi.ox.ac.uk
Professor David Stuart Research Group
Henry Wellcome Building of Genomic Medicine
David Stuart
FRS
Professor of Structural Biology
Viruses are attractive targets for study at the molecular level, since they are sufficiently simple that we may hope to achieve a rather complete understanding of their biology. In practice although their genomes are compact they display astonishing diversity, both in structure and function. Our attempts to relate structure to function have benefited from the developments in X-ray crystallographic methods that have brought very complex structures within reach of description in atomic detail. Our targets range from picornaviruses, small ssRNA viruses, which include a number of important animal and human pathogens, to the larger dsRNA viruses. At both ends of this spectrum (from less than 10,000,000 to about 100,000,000 Daltons) we now have representative atomic structures.
Our efforts are particularly focused on virus-receptor interactions and basic puzzles of virus assembly. Our studies here are highly collaborative, with strong links with a number of virologists (P. Mertens and B. Charleston (Pirbright), D. Rowlands (Leeds), P. Roy (London) as well as numerous groups elsewhere in Europe).
Work on cell-surface molecules is largely performed in collaboration with the group of Prof. E.Y. Jones, whose entry describes many of the projects.
We have a particular interest in studying virus evolution and many of these studies are perfoirmed in collaboration with D. Bamford in Helsinki.
Finally, we are studying a number of viral proteins and enzymes which are potential drug targets and/or illuminate how viruses modulate host responses. For example, the immune modulators of pox viruses.
Recent publications
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Investigation of the milling characteristics of different focused-ion-beam sources assessed by three-dimensional electron diffraction from crystal lamellae.
Journal article
Parkhurst JM. et al, (2023), IUCrJ
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The P323L substitution in the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase (NSP12) confers a selective advantage during infection.
Journal article
Goldswain H. et al, (2023), Genome Biol, 24
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Continuous population-level monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a large European metropolitan region
Journal article
Emmenegger M. et al, (2023), iScience, 26, 105928 - 105928
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SARS-CoV-2-specific nasal IgA wanes 9 months after hospitalisation with COVID-19 and is not induced by subsequent vaccination
Journal article
Liew F. et al, (2023), eBioMedicine, 87, 104402 - 104402
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Publisher Correction: A conserved glutathione binding site in poliovirus is a target for antivirals and vaccine stabilisation.
Journal article
Bahar MW. et al, (2022), Commun Biol, 5