This month two researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nathan Sherer and Aaron Hoskins, each received a $200,000 grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to advance their research.
Nathan Sherer is an assistant professor of Oncology, who is interested in understanding how viral infections spread from cell to cell. Professor Sherer’s research emphasizes on HIV, which infects more than 35 million people worldwide, resulting in about 1.5 million deaths each year.
There is no vaccine or cure for HIV infection. The combined antiviral therapy is the only treatment for HIV infection. The therapy can reduce viral load and delay progression to AIDS, but these drugs are expensive, have costly side effects, and can drive the evolution of drug-resistant viruses. Professor Sherer’s research will lead to the development of better therapies for AIDS.
The $200,000 grant will help Professor Sherer to further characterize the process of the virus’ production and proliferation. In the long term, Professor Sherer’s research aims to interrupt this process and to develop drugs effective against HIV as well as new broad-spectrum antiviral medications.
Aaron Hoskins is an assistant professor of Biochemistry, who is studying the cellular machines, which are composed of dozens, or even hundreds, of protein components. The cellular machines interpret the information found in DNA genes and put it in a form that can be used by the cell.
Professor Hoskins particularly focuses on studies of pre-mRNA splicing, which is a process of removing introns from nascent transcripts. This process is carried out by the spliceosome. For every intron that is removed, the spliceosome is built, activated for catalysis, and disassembled on the pre-mRNA transcript. This is a remarkable feat of cellular engineering involving the coordinated actions of about 100 proteins and 5 snRNAs. The research will also study how these proteins and snRNAs are built in living cells and how errors in construction can lead to diseases such as blindness or muscular atrophies.
The grant that Professor Hoskins received from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation will support his research and also help undergraduates seek summer research opportunities in his lab.
The $400,000 in research funding is critical for young researchers like Professor Sherer and Professor Hoskins to establish their labs and develop early data that will allow them to compete for larger, NIH grants in the future. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin receive nearly $1.2 billion in research funding from public and private section each year. The significant amount of research funds strengthens the university’s role as one of the premier research institutions in the country.
For laboratory suppliers, the University of Wisconsin is an attractive research marketplace. If you are a laboratory supply company interested in networking with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites you to the 15th Annual BioResearch Product Faire™ Event on September 4th 2014.
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Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. has been producing on-campus tradeshows for more than 20 years. Laboratory supply companies will have a chance to demonstrate their products and deliver samples and lectures to academic researchers at Biotechnology Calendar, Inc.’s BioResearch Product Faire™ Event. Those demonstrations and lectures will help researchers boost awareness of the newest technologies and products, advance research progress, and shorten research time.
If you are a lab supply company interested in participating in the BioResearch Product Faire™ Event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on September 4th 2014, please click the button below.
Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is organizing nearly 60 tradeshows each year. There are more events available at different institutions across the nation. Please read the National Show Schedule for 2014.