The Ebola Virus in 3D

Since Ebola was first described in 1976, there have been several epidemics of this disease. Hundreds of people have died because of Ebola infections, mainly in Zaire, Sudan, Congo and Uganda. In addition, several fatalities have occurred because of accidents in laboratories working with the virus. Currently, a number of scientists claim that terrorists may use Ebola as a biological weapon.

In the 3D model presented in this study, Ebola-encoded structures are shown in maroon, and structures from human cells are shown in grey. The Ebola model is based on X-ray analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and general virology data published in the last two decades. Some protein structures were predicted using computational biology techniques, such as molecular modeling.

The model includes 11 types of Ebola and human proteins 18900 nucleotides of genomic RNA and more than 2.5 million of different lipid molecules.

[Via DesignYouTrust.com]