Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Ethan Aguilar and I am from San Antonio, TX. My future career goals once I graduate are to go to medical school and specialize in radiology.

Purification of KSHV Proteins

Abstract

The overall research that I am a part of works on the study of the proteins of the tegument layer of the Kaposi Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV). These proteins play important key roles in how the KSHV evades detection by pathogen recognition receptors in cells of the human body. Thus, this research has important potential applications for the creation of vaccines and other antiviral medications. The creation of these vaccines and antiviral medication is extremely important since KSHV is one of the main opportunist viruses that afflict people who are immunocompromised. My specific role in this research so far has been in assisting in the creation of western blots of gels that have been loaded with samples of bacteria. The process of creating the wester blots starts with the creation of the gel using resolving gel solution, stacking gel solution, 10% APS, and TEMED. Once the gel is solidified, electrophoresis is performed on the gel to determine the sizes of the proteins expressed by the samples of bacteria. After this, the gel contents are transferred onto a nitrogenous membrane. Following this, the membrane is washed numerous times and different antibodies are added to the membrane. The purpose of these washing and addition of antibodies is to make the membrane have extremely specific signaling for the proteins that we are looking for. The purpose of these western blots is to determine how well the types of bacteria will function as model organisms for future research involving protein purification.

Keywords: KSHV, Protein Purification, herpesvirus