Description of projects available to graduate students:
There is no animal model for HHV-8 and the lack of which significantly interferes with our ability to study the virus's pathogenesis in vivo. We have recently discovered that in human cells, the major restriction for viral replication is lack of expression of the viral cellular receptor. In this project we propose to construct a mouse cell line that expresses the viral receptor. Once constructed we will determine if HHV-8 is capable of infecting and replicating in the mouse cell line. Infection will be monitored by expression of viral antigens and viral DNA levels. The ability to construct a murine cell line permissive for HHV-8 is the first step in developing a mouse model for HHV-8.
Techniques graduate student will learn:
Cell culture, recombinant cloning, DNA isolation, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, FLOW cytometry, Real-time PCR.
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