Analyzing atomic force microscopy images of virus-like particles by expectation-maximization.

Rachel A McCormick, Nicole M Ralbovsky, William Gilbraith, Joseph P Smith, Karl S Booksh

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in NPJ vaccines, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Atomic Force Microscopy of Poliovirus Particles After Inactivation by Chemical Methods and Accelerated Electrons.Viruses · 2025
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Rachel A McCormickDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA.

Nicole M RalbovskyAnalytical Research & Development, MRL, Merck & Co., Inc, West Point, PA, 19486, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4498-6567

William GilbraithDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA.

Joseph P SmithProcess Research & Development, MRL, Merck & Co., Inc, West Point, PA, 19486, USA. joseph.smith@merck.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0062-2534

Karl S BookshDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA. kbooksh@udel.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Analysis of virus-like particles (VLPs) is an essential task in optimizing their implementation as vaccine antigens for virus-initiated diseases. Interrogating VLP collections for elasticity by probing with a rigid atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip is a potential method for determining VLP morphological changes. During VLP morphological change, it is not expected that all VLPs would be in the same state. This leads to the open question of whether VLPs may change in a continuous or stepwise fashion. For continuous change, the statistical distribution of observed VLP properties would be expected as a single distribution, while stepwise change would lead to a multimodal distribution of properties. This study presents the application of a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), fit by the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm, to identify different states of VLP morphological change observed by AFM imaging.

Identifiers

PMID38902288

DOI10.1038/s41541-024-00871-7

PMCPMC11190231

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.