CRC 900, Project B10: Structural flexibility in the Hepatitis C virus glycoprotein complex as viral strategy to evade the humoral immune system

The majority of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients fails to clear the virus during the acute phase and conformational flexibility in the glycoprotein E2 was proposed to serve as mechanism to evade from neutralizing antibodies. In this project, we aim to determine the 3D structure of the conformationally flexible epitopes targeted by neutralizing antibodies in the context of the native glycoprotein complex. Furthermore, we will characterize the antibody response of HCV infected patients to these conformationally flexible epitopes.