Cristian Pagtalunan Sciences
Investigating the efficiency of KSHV lytic infections with kcirc55 knockouts
Scholars Journal
Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus is uniquely oncogenic, meaning that there is a relationship between infection and the pathogenesis of cancer. Unfortunately, no vaccine has been approved to prevent lytic infection, which is when the virus replicates using host cell machinery. However, it’s been discovered that KSHV produces circRNAs, which are non-coding, circular transcripts that are associated with regulatory functions. One circRNA, kcirc55, overlaps with vital open reading frames. In this study, Cristian will perform a mutagenesis on a plasmid with the original KSHV genome in order to produce a kcirc55 knockout. Afterwards, he will transfect cells with the vector and study how the removal of kcirc55 affects the KSHV life cycle. His research aims to expand the understanding of KSHV and reveal avenues for future development of treatments
Major: Chemical Engineering, Molecular and Cell Biology
Mentor: Fenyong Liu, Public Health