Kerstin Seier

How to use biophysics to look at virus behaviour

I am a postdoc at Umea University where I work with cells and viruses. I am especially interested in how viruses land on the cell surface. You can imagine the virus being like an UFO that tries to land on a foreign planet when it tries to land and enter a cell in your body. The virus needs to navigate and target to the cell surface and find a good spot to land and unload.

To look at those initial binding events I am using biophysical methods. I label the virus particles with fluorophores so that they can be illuminated. As viruses are very small I use fancy microscopes to look at them and how they behave and interact with cell surfaces.

I am also happy to talk in general about my journey into science. I studied physics and find it most exciting to use (bio)physical methods and apply them to biological or even medical questions.

Praktisk information

Due to my background in physics, pharmacology and virology I can talk about different aspects in life sciences: microscopy, cells and cell culture, protein expression, viruses and their binding behavior. I would be happy to adapt the level and the theme of the presentation depending on your interests.

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Umeå universitet

Clinical microbiology

Läs mer om min forskning

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