Viral Assembly and Biological Systems
Mauricio Comas-Garcia, Ph.D.
Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi
Research Center for Health Sciences and Biomedicine
Department of Sciences
Welcome to the viral assembly and biological systems laboratory. We are part of the High-resolution Microscopy Section at the Research Center for Health Sciences and Biomedicine (CICSaB).
Our main research interests are:
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The molecular mechanisms of virus assembly and genome packaging in arboviruses and respiratory viruses.
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Developing novel vaccines against arboviruses and SARS-CoV-2 and viral-based biomedical tools.
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Structural biology using thin-section TEM of cultured cells and tissues.
Our Research
Chikungunya virus assembly and budding
We have developed a plasmid for expression in mammalian cells that contains the complete genome of CHIKV 181/25 with a repoter gen. Our goal is to understand electrostatic interactions that control core vrion and core assembly, and also budding.
The projects in this section are the main focus of our group.
Understanding the nuclei of sea turtles erytrhocytes
Unlike mamals, birds and reptiles erytrhocytes have nuclei. The shape of the erythrocytes in sea turtles has been used as a biomarker to understand the health of these organisms as well as to predict ecological damage. Along with Prof. Labrada-Martagon we have developed novel metrics to evalute nuclear damage in erythrocytes of sea turtules.
CHIKV inflamatory response
Our goal is to determine if mutations in CHIKV virions that results in defective particle can result in a less pro-inflamatory reponse on PBMCs from voluntiers that have not been exposed to this virus.
This project is a collaboration with Prof. Adriana Monsivais-Urenda and Dra. Helena B. Martínez-Shiio
HEK-293T cells infected with Chikungunya virus 181-25
Thin-section TEM for biological samples and biopsiess: sample preparation and imaging services
Our laboratory offers several services for Researchers and Physicians:
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Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) of purified biological samples at 80 and 200 kV.
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Sample preparation for thin-section TEM; hydrophobic and hydrophilic resins (immunochemistry labeling).
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TEM imaging of thin-section samples at 80 and 200 kV (JEM-JEOL-2100).
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EM tomography.
