Emerging plagues and electron microscopes : New Frontiers and Challenges

The threat and reality of novel emerging viruses have made its presence felt in the last two decades with emergence of some of the most devastating human epidemics and pandemics ranging from AIDS to SARS, Chandipura virus, Nipah, Hendra, Toscana and the pandemic influenza virus. These are just a few examples of human infections. Climatic, demographic and changes in ecobiology of vectors have also introduced known viruses like the West Nile virus into previously non-endemic areas. Diseases like dengue are also changing their clinical presentation with more serious outbreaks and atypical presentations. The last decade has also witnessed emergence of novel viral infections in animals and plants. 

Electron microscopes have played a very important role in both giving first clues towards catching the etiologic agent as well as dissected out the structural anatomy of these viruses. This has been possible due to tremendous advances in the field of ultra-high resolution electron microscopy, specimen processing techniques and powerful computational platforms.

With the rapid advances in cryo-electron microscopy and electron tomography, the 3D reconstructions of viruses and macromolecular assemblies as well as subcellular structures are now possible at near angstrom resolution. The presentation will cover the evolution of this science from the Nobel prize winning invention  by Knoll and Ernst Ruska to the “ballets of atom” that has given us a completely new dimension of visualizing the inner space. Moreover, not only basic sciences the Em is now a very powerful tool in the hands of the microbe hunter and drug developers.