Structure Of Protein That Mutates DNA Of The AIDS Virus HIV-1 Determined, University of Minnesota Study

ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2008) — Understanding the structure of proteins involved in inhibiting HIV-1 infection could help in the battle against AIDS, and University of Minnesota researchers have taken a crucial step in that direction. Hiroshi Matsuo, Ph.D., and Reuben Harris, Ph.D., co-investigators of the research and assistant professors in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota have determined the structure of APOBEC3G -- a protein that inhibits the AIDS virus, HIV. This discovery is the first to shed light on the atomic structure of the protein.