Virus trapped in a MOF!

We trapped the Tobacco Mosaic Virus in a Metal Organic Framework and published it in Angewandte! Inside the MOF, the virus become much more resilient against denaturation, even surviving boiling water and pure methanol solvent. After these harsh treatments, we were able to gently exfoliate the virus with EDTA to get the virus back. The effort was lead by first year graduate student Shaobo Li, who spent almost 18 months working out the conditions necessary to coat 100% of the virus inside the porous ZIF-8. Madushani Dharmarwardana found that the surface of the virus was still reactive, showing mass transport of small molecules through the pores. The Smaldone grouphelped with the physical characterization and the Chan lab lent us Ren and the PXRD.