Sergi Padilla-Parra

Methodological Quantification of the Spatio-Temporal Regulation of cell-factors controlling Endocytic Routes during Virus Entry

The study of entry mechanisms of enveloped viruses and how they are targeted to different endocytic routes, from internalization to trafficking and fusion is crucial for many reasons: first, virus-cell interactions constitutes an area that is not completely explored and novel strategies to develop drugs and vaccines capable of blocking infection are needed, also viruses are interesting means to deliver drugs and macromolecules within the cell and finally, they are important tools to better understand new mechanisms and concepts related to virus entry (i.e. endocytosis) in structural and molecular biology.

We propose a unique combination of approaches based on quantitative fluorescence microscopy among others; to unveil the spatial and temporal regulation of the host-cell factors implied in endocytic viral entry. We will produce a quantitative microscopy-based framework that will allow to systematically studying how different viruses enter the cell via different routes of endocytosis, and also to discover how different endocytic pathways are regulated in the presence/absence of pathogens.