Roya Zandi

The paper develops a theoretical model to explain how membrane geometry and boundary conditions influence viral budding completion, showing that vesicle-like geometries favor closure while flat membranes can stall.

The paper identifies conserved residues in Old-World alphaviruses that govern capsid structure and traces their evolutionary divergence, suggesting reduced assembly efficiency in New-World lineages may contribute to attenuation.

This study shows SARS-CoV-2 M protein conformations induce distinct membrane curvatures, matching virion regions and enabling spatial segregation through curvature-mediated interactions.

This study investigates Chikungunya virus assembly by combining simulations and experiments, showing that spike-spike interactions are critical for efficient budding and particle symmetry.

This study shows that M protein interactions alone can drive clustering in ERGIC-like lipid bilayers, with direct interactions being stronger than membrane-mediated ones.

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to model the assembly of icosahedral virus capsids, revealing how protein subunits form symmetric structures around RNA genomes.

This paper develops a biophysical model to explain how HIV-1 capsids translocate through the nuclear pore complex, showing that competitive binding and geometric changes enable fast and complete nuclear import.

This study uses single-molecule fluorescence assays to show that eIF4G represses eIF4E-cap binding, while eIF4A relieves this repression, revealing new insights into eIF4F dynamics and mRNA recognition.

The paper demonstrates that human p38 MAPK selects targets through frequency-dependent biochemical resonance, using oscillating activation states to encode stimuli and activate specific genetic responses.

This study analyzes two aging modes in yeast, showing spherical budding cells better control growth and size, and develops a model to test mechanisms of bud morphogenesis during aging.

This study develops a method to express, purify, and insert SARS-CoV-2 M protein into lipid bilayers, characterizing its structural properties using AFM and Cryo-EM.

The paper develops a multiscale chemical-mechanical model to study how the spatial distribution of the Dpp morphogen affects tissue growth in Drosophila wing discs, showing that a larger gradient domain leads to increased size, faster growth, and more symmetric shape.