How do cells find what viruses hide?
Viruses build membrane-bound compartments that should hide them from the immune system. Yet cells still sense infection. How is this possible? We combine structural biology, imaging, and virology to understand how, when, and where inflammasome-mediated immune sensing begins—and what happens next.
Three perspectives:
Can an immune sensor recognize a viral protein, viral RNA, or both? We rebuild the sensing machinery from purified components to uncover the molecular mechanisms that initiate inflammasome activation.
In vitro reconstitution & cryoEM
Certain viruses replicate inside membrane-bound organelles, while immune sensors assemble in the surrounding cytoplasm. We visualize both directly inside infected cells to reveal their spatial relationship.
In situ cryoET
Is immune sensing fast enough to stop infection? We watch individual molecules in real time to understand the dynamics of viral replication and immune activation.
Single-molecule imaging
Our Methods
Functional assays
“Fibbing”
Cryo-electron microscopy