Sayan Das (he/him)

Interested in our recent norovirus NS3 work? 👇

Join us to dig deeper!

I'm recruiting a PhD candidate to investigate NS3's role in viral replication and assembly using #cryoEM, #cryoET, and other complementary techniques.

🔗 tinyurl.com/4f3t3aae

Please share! 🙏

15.07.2025 15:42 — 👍 18    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 0

Structure of tick-borne virus revealed at atomic resolution for the first time | Penn State University Rates of the Powassan virus infections — which can cause seizures and paralysis — are increasing across North America. Researchers from Penn State, the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department ...

Powassan virus is a scary emerging tick-borne virus that causes neurological disease. It is great to see that my @ciddpsu.bsky.social colleagues are on top of it.

www.psu.edu/news/researc...

09.07.2025 18:52 — 👍 10    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0

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)

09.07.2025 20:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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

09.07.2025 20:29 — 👍 12    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0

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)

09.07.2025 20:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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)

09.07.2025 20:19 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Atomic-resolution structure of a chimeric Powassan tick-borne flavivirus The 2.8-Å resolution structure is presented for a chimeric construct of an emerging tick-borne flavivirus, Powassan virus.

New in @science.org
We built a safe, atomic-resolution version of the Powassan virus—a deadly tick-borne #flavivirus with no vaccine.
✅ First structure ever
✅ Safe to handle (BSL-2)
✅ Platform for vaccines & antivirals

Let me show you 🧵 (1/5)

Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

09.07.2025 20:11 — 👍 31    🔁 13    💬 1    📌 0