# Core 3

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $810,666

## Abstract

THE HARC CENTER: HIV ACCESSORY AND REGULATORY COMPLEXES
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY CORE
SUMMARY
The Structural Biology Core will develop and optimize novel structural biology approaches that enable structure
determination of recombinant and reconstituted HIV virus-host complexes important to HARC Center Projects
and overall goals. We will apply state-of-the-art technologies in X-ray crystallography, single particle cryogenic
electron microscopy (cryo-EM), electron cryogenic tomography (cryo-ET), and antibody (Fab) technologies. A
major focus will be the development of novel functionalities for our graphene oxide (GO) based affinity grids
technology, and improving our convolutional neural network (CNN) based imaging and volume denoising to
provide better image alignment and classification of cryo-EM experiments. We will develop antibody technologies
to facilitate the structural and biochemical characterization of HIV-host complexes. These include high-
throughput Phage Antibody Bead Sorting (PhAB Sorting) for deep mining of the diversity of recombinant Ab
libraries, Bio-layer Interferometry (BLI) Immunosorbent Assay (BLIISA) for screening and ranking of candidate
binding hits, and a double cysteine mutant cross-linking method for trapping high energy states of highly dynamic
proteins. Furthermore, the Structural Biology Core is an integral and essential fixture of the HARC endogenous
protein structure (HEPS) platform. In collaboration with the Genetics and Proteomics Cores, we will develop
and employ cryo-EM approaches for endogenously tagged host protein complexes purified from HIV infected
and uninfected primary CD4+ T cells for data integration (Computational Core) with structural proteomics data
to generate comprehensive structural models.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10506985
- **Project number:** 1U54AI170792-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Yifan Cheng
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $810,666
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-07-15 → 2027-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10506985

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10506985, Core 3 (1U54AI170792-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10506985. Licensed CC0.

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