| Affiliations: |
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| Project Leader: | Aracely Perez aapg96@tamu.edu Veterinary Integrative Biosciences |
| Faculty Mentor: |
Dr. Candice Brinkmeyer-Langford, Ph.D.
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Meeting Times:
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Team Size:
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7 (Team Full)
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Poster presentations, opportunity for course credit, possible authorship opportunities
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Team Needs:
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Seeking highly motivated students which are capable of devoting a minimum of 5 hours per week to the lab. Training will be provided to students for all tasks. Experience with Adobe Illustrator or ImageJ is sought after, but not required.
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Description:
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Neurological diseases, such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, may be the result of an earlier viral infection. In some cases, individuals infected by a given virus will eventually develop the associated neurological condition, while others will develop more variable symptomologies in response to the same viral agent. Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) provides a useful model to understand how a single virus can contribute to different types and severities of neurological outcomes. In mice, TMEV infection elicits diverse neurological conditions, depending on the infected mouse strain, suggesting that the genetic background of the individual influences the neurological disease characteristics observed. To further our understanding of how the genetic background impacts neurological damage in response to viral infection, we aim to elucidate the immunological and genetic determinants that drive the differences we see neurological disease symptoms in genetically distinct mice. The student researchers will be responsible for regularly checking mice (weighing and phenotyping), and assisting with: necropsies, organ collection and processing, RNA extractions, qPCR, RNAseq experiments and related activities (such as evaluating RNA quality), cytokine profiling experiments and related activities, data entry, and data interpretation as needed
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