The Kasson group has recently published an article in the journal Biochemistry on how influenza binds cell-surface receptors. In this article, we discuss how computational techniques can be used for further analysis of structural and biochemical data on glycan binding by influenza. We review prior work that we have done in collaboration with the Pande group, including research using Folding@home. Those earlier papers can be found here and here.
The table-of-contents graphic from our recent paper illustrates the binding dynamics the glycan (sugar) residues on the surface of the influenza hemagglutinin protein. 20 structures of the glycan molecules are superimposed on the receptor-binding pocket of hemagglutinin.