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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Jim Herrick: Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Jmu Cgems
Jim Herrick: Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Jmu Cgems
JMU CGEMS
In October, 2013, Dr. James Herrick was awarded a 4-VA mini-grant to conduct research
with UVA’s Dr. Stephen Turner on a project called Genomic analysis of multi-drug antibiotic resistance encoded on mobile genetic elements in Virginia stream bacterial populations. The team pioneered the use of a new DNA sequencing method called nanopore sequencing. Using this new method in conjunction with the Ion TorrentTM DNA sequencing system, they analyzed an antibiotic-resistance plasmid—a circular piece of DNA— obtained from uncultivated bacteria in local streams. Their study demonstrated that the plasmid carries genes that transfer resistance to many antibiotics used in hospitals, making …
Ray Enke: Gene Expression In The Vertebrate Retina, Jmu Cgems
Ray Enke: Gene Expression In The Vertebrate Retina, Jmu Cgems
JMU CGEMS
In December, 2013, during Dr. Ray Enke’s rst year at JMU, 4-VA awarded him a mini-grant called Establishing a collaborative undergraduate research program: Characterizing epigenetic regulation of gene expression during development of the vertebrate retina. Launched as a collaboration to use a laser dissection microscope (LCM) at GMU, the project brought together three investigators with complementary areas of expertise. Dr. Enke focused on mechanisms of gene regulation in the vertebrate retina while Dr. Lance Liotta and Dr. Virginia Espina developed specialized techniques for analyzing retinal histology and laser capture microdissection of retinal tissue.
In 2014, access to the LCM allowed …
Louise Temple: Impacting Infectious Diseases, Jmu Cgems
Louise Temple: Impacting Infectious Diseases, Jmu Cgems
JMU CGEMS
Since 2013, 4-VA has awarded Dr. Louise Temple seed funding for three primary areas of research that a ect human health on a global scale: the spread of antibiotic resistance, the re- emergence of whooping cough, and a poultry vaccine. Through these projects, she and her various teams of collaborators
and students have discovered a method for how genes with methicillin resistance spread, laid the groundwork for a new method of whooping cough detection, and started developing a vaccine against a poultry bacterium that is harmful to humans.
Dr. Temple’s dedication to scienti c discovery—for science and non-science majors alike—has …
Christopher Berndsen: Hiv Prevention, Jmu Cgems
Christopher Berndsen: Hiv Prevention, Jmu Cgems
JMU CGEMS
In August, 2013, Dr. Christopher Berndsen was awarded a 4-VA mini-grant called Structure of human BST-2 with BST-2 antagonist Vpu to determine the structure of a human anti-viral protein in collaboration with Dr. Carla Slebodnick at VT. The primary goal was to determine the crystal structure of the human protein BST-2 in a complex with a protein from the HIV-1 genome.
The research also developed into a teaching and training collaboration of students in X-ray crystallography. Students were able to use facilities at VT to study the protein which increased their ability to analyze data collected from VT. The work …