Project:

Isolation, Identification, and Characterization of Novel Viral RNA Dependent RNA Polymerases for Use in Synthetic Biology

Students:

Elizabeth Argiro, Joshua Antony

Institution:

Icahn School of Medicine, Manhattan

Mentors:

Benjamin tenOever

Abstract:

With the rise in antibiotic resistant microbes and the failure of broad spectrum drugs to effectively treat viral diseases, the demand for new "biologics", drugs based on organic molecules such as proteins, DNA, and RNA, has greatly increased. The purpose of our research is to find a self-amplifying, via its RNA dependent RNA polymerase, RNA, which of the three aforementioned biologics has been proven to be the superior due to its cheap manufacturing cost and moderate treatment length, that has relatively small nucleotide count. Such RNA viruses have been found in arthropods, mollusks, and plants, but those found have not been able to adapted for use in mammalian cells. Through the discovery of a new novel viruses, our project ultimately would aim to build such a RNA machine that can generate antibodies or specific proteins found in the body that are aimed at fighting infectious agents or even more complex genetic diseases.

Poster:

Team samples: