The goal of this research is to understand in vitro and then engineer in vivo the Tobbacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). While this virus can spontaneously assemble in nature to lengths of 300 nm, researchers have been able to only get it to assemble in vivo to 150 nm.

TMV has two constituent parts: an RNA strand and a coat protein. The initial goal of this project is to acquire the proper ingrediants to allow this spontaneous assembly process to occur. For this purpose, the lab is in the process of growing tobacco plants for study of the process in vitro. While these plants are growing, the project will focus its efforts on extracting the coat protein and RNA strand from E-coli. After the successful extraction of the two primary components, the self-assembly process will be studied in detail.

The application of the understanding and control of the TMV is to then create nano-scale conductors by manipulating the coat protein surrounding the RNA strand.