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Updated: May 15, 2026

Advancing High-Resolution Imaging of Virus Assemblies in Liquid and Ice
Published on: July 20, 2022
Confessions of an icosahedral virus crystallographer
1Department of Molecular Biology, MB31, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. jackj@scripps.edu
Abstract:
This is a personal history of my structural studies of icosahedral viruses that evolved from crystallographic studies, to hybrid methods with electron cryo-microscopy and image reconstruction (cryoEM) and then developed further by incorporating a variety of physical methods to augment the high resolution crystallographic studies. It is not meant to be comprehensive, even for my own work, but hopefully provides some perspective on the growth of our understanding of these remarkable biologic assemblies. The goal is to provide a historical perspective for those new to the field and to emphasize the limitations of any one method, even those that provide atomic resolution information about viruses.
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