New visualization reveals the Zika virus at atomic level

The Zika virus pandemic is sweeping across Latin America, sparking a surge in research aimed at learning more about the virus and to devise a vaccine against it. 

There are many things that are unknown about Zika, including exactly how the virus is causing pregnant women to deliver babies suffering from microcephaly, which is a condition in which infants are born with smaller-than-average heads and poor brain development. 

It's also a mystery how the virus, which usually only causes mild symptoms similar to a cold, is leading to Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a nerve disorder that can cause temporary paralysis.

Public health agencies in the U.S. and around the world are jump starting research into the effects of Zika and how to stop the virus from spreading, in addition to controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that are the main vector of the virus.

To help the public get a new perspective on Zika, the biomedical visualization studio Visual Science has created what they say is "the first scientifically accurate 3D model" of the virus "at atomic resolution."

"It's the most accurate model of the Zika viral particle currently available," the company said in a press release.  

To produce it, Visual Science, which specializes in creating scientific visualizations of micro and nanoscopic objects, says it employed the same structural bioinformatics techniques that drug firms are using to devise treatments for the virus. 

Here's Visual Science's description of the model:

"It includes 360 distinct surface protein structures, the lipid envelope, and the likely structure of genetic material in complex with capsid proteins." 

The company has also created simulations of HIV, Ebola and the papilloma virus, among others. 

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