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NIH Grant Awarded to Study Skin Virus

January 11, 2016
By: College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Joanna Shisler, Associate Professor of Microbiology and researcher at the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Beckman Institute, and member of the Computing Genomes for Reproductive Health (CGRH) research theme at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. Shisler, together with Dr. Brian Ward from the University of Rochester, will use the grant to study the molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) in detail to identify ways to regulate its underlying proteins to formulate cures for infections and diseases such as cancer.

According to the CDC, molluscum contagiosum is an infection caused by a poxvirus (molluscum contagiosum virus; MCV). It is one of the most common skin infections in children and sexually active young adults.  Despite this common infection, one major hurdle is that the virus cannot be propagated in cell culture.  Most other virueses, such as herpes viruses, can be grown in cultured cells, making them easier to study.  The goal of this grant is to use new approaches to understand what barriers cells create to prevent virus replication.

Read the full story at the College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign site.


January 11, 2016
By: College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign
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