Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&I) is the recipient of two new R21 awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
One grant is titled “Impact of host genetic variants on regulating chikungunya virus-induced disease” and will focus on identifying and validating the specific causal gene under HrCHK1 (chromosome 8 QTL) that regulates CHIKV disease outcomes, while performing additional focused mapping studies to identify the specific gene(s) that confer extreme disease resistance on the CC026 genetic background. The other grant is titled “RNA ribosylation’s role in viral RNA biology and innate immunity” and aims to further investigate the impact of RNA ribosylation on viral RNA translation efficiency, while also investigating Zinc Finger Antiviral Protein (ZAP’s) role in sensing ribosylated RNAs to inhibit viral replication and initiate antiviral immune responses within the infected cell.