Microcrystallography of spheroids: crystalline armours of insect viruses

Crystalline armours protecting virus particles from environmental insults are a hallmark of many insect viruses. Their structure has remained an enigma for decades because of major technical limitations. Indeed, we had to push the boundaries of X-ray crystallography to determine the first structure of such tiny natural crystals, recently published in Nature. In this project, we will investigate the molecular organisation of complex infectious crystals called spheroids to elucidate how they self-assemble, recruit virus particles and deliver their cargo. We anticipate our results to be a stepping-stone to the development of spheroid-based microparticles in biotechnology.