Sayan Das (he/him)

We will announce a #postdoc opening in January. Cryo-ET and virus replication. If you're interested you can DM or email me already now. More info will follow!

Locating the missing chlorophylls f in far-red photosystem I The discovery of chlorophyll f-containing photosystems, with their long-wavelength photochemistry, represented a distinct, low-energy paradigm for oxygenic photosynthesis. Structural studies on chloro...

Have you ever looked at the night sky and wondered if there’s a chlorophyll f in the reaction centre of Photosystem I from far-red light adapted cyanobacteria? 🦠

Well, we did (don’t judge) and the work that followed is now out as a First Release in @science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cryo-EM resolves the structure of the archaeal dsDNA virus HFTV1 from head to tail This structure of an archaeal tailed virus (arTV) provides detailed insights into arTV assembly and infection mechanisms.

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A Q-score of 0.01?! 😭

Laser flash melting cryo-EM samples to overcome preferred orientation - Nature Methods Individual proteins tend to adopt preferred orientations when subjected to vitrification for cryo-electron microscopy analysis. A laser flash melting procedure followed by rapid revitrification provid...

A laser flash melting procedure, followed by rapid revitrification, provides a simple approach to help mitigate the preferred orientation problem that plagues cryo-EM analysis.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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! 🙏

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...

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)

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/...