Nanodiscs capture HIV and Ebola surface proteins in lifelike membranes for vaccine design

Viruses are masters at invading cells thanks to specialized proteins that coat their surfaces. When scientists design vaccines, they often create versions of these viral surface proteins to study how the immune system might respond. But those lab-made proteins typically lack key parts that sit within the virus's membrane, so they don't always behave the way they would on a real virus. This has made it difficult to understand how antibodies actually identify and neutralize these viral targets.