New treatments against tuberculosis
The group of prof. Peter J. Peters (NKI-AVL) identified a pathogenic pathway of M. tuberculosis (Cell, 2007) and aims at using the cryo-TEMs for investigating this pathway at macromolecular level. They will use single particle analysis to study proteins of the bacteria type VII secretion systems (Nature Rev Microbiol, 2007), that are involved in the killing of human cells. Atomic structures will be ‘docked’ into the lower resolution particle density maps to create templates for a macromolecular atlas of the nano machinery in cells made by cryo-electron tomography.
Figure: substrate of a novel secretion nano-machine used by Tubercle bacillus to cause tuberculosis. The image shows a number of two dimensional particles randomly positioned; a three dimensional model of these particles resolved by single particle analysis at 9.4 Å resolution is depicted. (M. Sani et al. in prepation)
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