* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Projects
Urinary tract infection wikipedia , lookup
Childhood immunizations in the United States wikipedia , lookup
Common cold wikipedia , lookup
Gastroenteritis wikipedia , lookup
Globalization and disease wikipedia , lookup
Germ theory of disease wikipedia , lookup
Hepatitis B wikipedia , lookup
Marburg virus disease wikipedia , lookup
Sociality and disease transmission wikipedia , lookup
Surround optical-fiber immunoassay wikipedia , lookup
Neglected tropical diseases wikipedia , lookup
Schistosomiasis wikipedia , lookup
Neonatal infection wikipedia , lookup
Hygiene hypothesis wikipedia , lookup
Bioterrorism wikipedia , lookup
Transmission (medicine) wikipedia , lookup
Hospital-acquired infection wikipedia , lookup
Project 1. Investigating the Link Between Infectious Agents & Cancer Development The major challenge of trying to directly link the presence of infectious agents with tumor development is that infectious agents are often present at very low levels in the tissue (below detection limit) or may have been cleared from infected tumor tissue at the time of testing. In the later ‘Hit-and-Run’ case the effects of infections are very difficult to link back to cancer development. Thus, the contribution of infections to the etiology of cancers remains unclear. To overcome this challenge, we propose to switch the focus from the detection of infectious agents in tumor tissue to the detection of the epigenetics and proteomics changes induced by infection, which persists long after the viruses or bacteria have been cleared from the infected tissue. We propose to use molecular signatures to establish the contributory role of infections in cancer development as an alternative approach to the detection of the infectious agents itself. In this project, you will learn: 1) cancer signaling networks, 2) host-microbe interaction, 3) high-end analytical instrumentation (mass spectrometry), and 4) molecular and computational modeling. Project 2. Molecular Mechanisms of Bioactive Plant-based Compounds in Neglected Tropical Diseases Trachoma Trachoma results from infection of the conjunctiva with Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) and is the most common infectious cause of blindness worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 1.3 million people are blind from trachoma and 40 million have active disease. We recently discovered that C. trachomatis infection is highly susceptible to a bioactive compound – AC221.34 from an important medicinal plant distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions around the world. In this project, you will learn: 1) medicinal chemistry, 2) therapeutic protein-drug interactions, 3) structure-based drug design, and 4) working with animal models.