Dr. Laura Bridgewater, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology The goal of this project was to follow up on preliminary data suggesting that nBmp2 directly activated transcription. A few months of follow-up experiments, however, showed that the original transcription data was not reproducible. At that point we turned our attention to two different questions about […]
Development of Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (q-PCR) Assays for the Specific Detection and Characterization of Select Bacterial Pathogens
Dr. Richard Robison, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology The Specific aims for the project were as follows Develop q-PCR reactions for specific target genes of bacterial pathogens Primer generation software will be used to design primer and probe sequences that will theoretically perform optimally in PCR reactions. All sequences will be subjected to BLAST […]
Cytokine Signaling in the Microenvironment May Aid in Tumor Development and Progression
Dr. Kim O’Neill, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology Studies have indicated that in breast tumors a high number of tumor associated macrophages (TAM’s) is indicative of a poor prognosis. TAM’s in the breast tumor microenvironment generally have a compromised immune response and focus their energy toward tissue repair which leads to angiogenesis, tumor growth, […]
A Novel Nuclear Variant of nBMP-2: Role in Ca2+ Transport
Dr. Laura Bridgewater, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology The goal of this project was to elucidate the role that nBMP-2 plays in Ca2+ transport. In the previous year, we demonstrated that mice that have no nBMP-2 in the nuclei of their cells exhibit delays in the transport of Ca2+ back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum […]
Interferon Alpha in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Dr. Brian Poole, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met We presented data from this project at two meetings, 2 presentations at the American society for Microbiology Branch Meeting, Provo UT 2010 and one at the Intermountain Research Symposium, Logan Utah 2010. At the […]
The Function of Yeast PAS kinase
Dr. Julianne Grose, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology Evaluation of academic objectives PAS kinase is a newly discovered member of the nutrient sensing kinases that regulates glucose homeostasis in mice and yeast. The aim of our 2009 MEG “The Function of Yeast PAS kinase” was to characterize the role of a known PAS kinase […]
The Role of Nuclear Bmp2 (nBmp2) in Skeletal Muscle
Dr. Laura Bridgewater, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology The goal of this project was to characterize the molecular pathway by which nBmp2 disrupts Ca2+ handling in skeletal muscle of nBmp2 mutant mice. Previously, we had worked with Dr. Chad Hancock’s lab to measure muscle function in nBmp2 mutant mice, and those results showed a […]