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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Concerted deletions eliminate a neutralizing supersite in SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.87.1 spike.
Journal article
Duyvesteyn HME. et al, (2024), Structure
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Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody dynamics after primary vaccination with two-dose inactivated whole-virus vaccine, heterologous mRNA-1273 vaccine booster, and Omicron breakthrough infection in Indonesian health care workers.
Journal article
Suwarti S. et al, (2024), BMC Infect Dis, 24
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Oligomerisation-driven avidity controls SARS-CoV-2 cellular binding and inhibition
Journal article
Asor R. et al, (2024), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
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The effect of pH on the structure of Bluetongue virus VP5.
Journal article
Zhang H. et al, (2024), J Gen Virol, 105
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Immunogenicity of Abdala COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnamese people after primary and booster vaccinations: a prospective observational study in Vietnam.
Journal article
Thanh TT. et al, (2024), Int J Infect Dis