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Principal Investigator: John Parker and Marcelo Ehrich
Contact Information: E-mail: jsp7@cornell.edu - Phone: 607-256- 5626
Sponsor: U.S. - Israel Binational Science Foundation
Grant Number: 2005283
Title: The Vesicular Trafficking Machinery: A Crossroad of Virus Reproduction, Virally Induced Apoptosis and Cellular Defense in Reovirus Infection
Annual Direct Cost: $6,000
Project Period: 10/01/06-09/30/07
The mammalian reoviruses are model agents for studying basic viral pathobiology, and promising oncotherapeutic agents. Although reoviruses neither use membranes as platforms for viral replication nor encode transmembrane glycoproteins, we have preliminary data suggesting their interaction with the membrane trafficking machinery at multiple stages of the infectious process. The nature of these interactions and the role they play in the infectious process remain poorly characterized. Our goal is to document the changes in membrane trafficking during reovirus infection, to understand their function and the mechanisms by which they are elicited. Our hypothesis that reoviruses usurp the membrane trafficking machinery to promote viral replication will be addressed with three specific aims:
- To characterize the usage and modulation of the endocytic pathways by reoviruses at early stages of infection.
- To characterize the morphology and function of the secretory pathways at later stages of infection.
- To dissect the role of vesicular trafficking in the progression of reovirus infection and reovirus-induced apoptosis.
We will monitor the structural and dynamic parameters of membrane traffic of the infected cell by microscopy and biochemical assays, and correlate them with the infection and apoptosis induced by the virus. We expect that understanding how reovirus use or perturb membrane traffic will provide insights into their pathogenesis and their preferential targeting of Ras-transformed cells.
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