Abraham lab at Harvard Medical School @abrahamlabhms.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Viral helicase-primases and polymerases are important drug targets for DNA viruses; this motivated us to study these MPXV proteins. 100
Abraham lab at Harvard Medical School @abrahamlabhms.bsky.social · 16/09/2026We determined high-resolution cryo-EM structures of the MPXV hexameric E5 helicase-primase bound to the polymerase complex bound to DNA 🧬. The structures capture both of these key viral proteins in action. 100
Abraham lab at Harvard Medical School @abrahamlabhms.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The structures reveal that after binding to the polymerase, a conformational change in the E5 helicase-primase exposes the helicase ssDNA channel, activating the helicase. Single-molecule optical tweezers experiments done with @joeloparo.bsky.social confirmed this activation mechanism. 100
