Chemical modification of a filamentous plant virus

Student’s name: Mary Gorman Home institution: Southwestern College NNCI site: SDNI @ UC San Diego REU Principal Investigator: Dr. Nicole Steinmetz – Department of NanoEngineering, UC San Diego REU Mentor: Yvonne Ma - Department of NanoEngineering, UC San Diego Abstract: Potato virus X (PVX) is a filamentous plant virus that has demonstrated anti-tumor immunity in multiple tumor models. To further enhance the bioavailability of PVX we are following a previously published strategy to crosslink the coat proteins with polymers. Bioconjugation is used to conjugate PEG polymers to PVX. PEGylated PVX will be characterized with gel electrophoresis, fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), followed by thermal stability and mechanical property measurements.