5 May 2026
Publication
Genie 3 is a new computational approach for protein design that combines atomistic structure modelling with improved computational efficiency. PUXANO contributed to the development of the method.
Together with The Native Antigen Company, PUXANO used cryo-electron microscopy to investigate the structure of Chikungunya virus-like particles (CHIKV-VLPs).
The VLPs were produced by The Native Antigen Company through transient expression of the viral structural polyprotein in HEK293 cells. At PUXANO, the samples were optimized for cryo-EM by buffer exchange and concentration adjustment before being applied to PUXANO Graphene cryo-EM grids.
Data were collected on a Talos Arctica 200 kV microscope equipped with a Falcon IV detector. Single-particle analysis resulted in a high-resolution cryo-EM density map of the VLPs, allowing the researchers to resolve features including the transmembrane helices crossing the lipid bilayer and to fit protein models into the density.
The structure provides a detailed view of the organization of the Chikungunya VLPs and supports the structural quality of the particles produced by The Native Antigen Company.
The same approach can also be used to study VLP–antibody interactions and epitopes, providing structural information relevant to vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic research.
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