A Q-score of 0.01?! 😭

Huge thanks to my co-authors, the Jose Lab at PSU, Dana Mitzel at USDA, and my advisor @suhafenstein.bsky.social , whose support and guidance made this possible.
Couldn’t have asked for a better team to start this journey.
Excited for what’s next. 💥 (5/5)

This is the first-ever high-resolution structure of the Powassan virus.
It’s basic science, but it opens the door to safer virus research, new vaccines, and antiviral strategies.
Proud to call this the first chapter of my PhD. (4/5)

#ScienceAdvances #CryoEM #Virology #Vaccine #Flavivirus #Powassan

We found three lipid-binding pockets.
Mutating a single tryptophan (W467) in one of them killed the virus.
That residue is conserved across many flaviviruses—Zika, dengue, TBEV...
🚨 A potential universal drug target. (3/5)

We made a chimera: Powassan surface proteins on a yellow fever vaccine backbone.

Then froze it & solved the structure at 2.8 Å via #cryoEM.
Full resolution of E-M proteins, transmembrane helices, and glycosylation. (2/5)