HBV Virion
Project Head
Elizabeth Grgacic (Head, Hepatitis B Research)
Research Assistant
Yanny Handoko PhD
Hepatitis B virus entry and fusion
New antiviral treatments requiring the identification of new antiviral targets are needed to prevent liver cancer in a third of the 350 million chronic hepatitis B virus carriers. However, a major obstacle to the study of HBV is the lack of a cell culture system and as a result nothing is known about how HBV enters and fuses with the host liver cell. In recent studies we have identified the fusion peptide of the related hepadnavirus, duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) as an internal hydrophobic region in the large envelope protein. The aim of this project is to identify the fusion peptide of hepatitis B virus, the amino acid residues of the envelope fusion peptide engaged in membrane fusion and the role of proteases in liberating the fusion peptide.
Funding Support: National Health and Medical Research Council