The Wright Lab at Vanderbilt University

5th Year Students

Ryan Rutledge

4th Year Students

Alex Schrimpe Rutledge

Plasmodium protozoan parasites, the source of malarial infections, have evolved a detoxification scheme for protection from the products of hemoglobin catabolism by converting toxic heme into the insoluble biomineral hemozoin. In its native state, hemozoin is coated by a mixture of oxidized lipids and possesses immunosuppressive activity. Whether the source of this activity is a result of intrinsic pigment composition and structure, reactivity with a biological species, such as lipids, or a combination of the two is unknown. We are exploring the global impact on the transcriptome of RAW 264.7 cells treated with the synthetic form of hemozoin, β-hematin, and previously identified lipid components to determine the cellular response due to the biomineral and lipid components individually.

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Kristin Halfpenny

3rd Year Students

Jonas Perez

Rapid, simple and accurate diagnostic tests for the detection of early respiratory virus infections are needed for better medical care. To that end, novel antibody- and nucleic acid-based detection strategies for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are being explored. These strategies utilize a variety of different designs including the use of DNA logic operations and filament coupled nucleic acids

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Melissa Carter

Hematophagous parasites, like the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum or the schistosomiasis parasite Schistosoma mansoni, biomineralize toxic free heme into a dimeric ferriprotoporphyrin IX (Fe(III)PPIX) crystal, known as hemozoin. The mechanism of hemozoin aggregation in vivo is as of yet undefined, and its lipid coat is of particular interest in understanding porphyrin assembly as well as hemozoin’s role in host immunomodulation. By studying the in vivo composition of hemozoin, in vitro hemozoin crystallization assays can be designed for the discovery of next-generation antimalarial drugs from bioactive natural product extracts.

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Leila Deravi

I work with Piezoelectric Inkjet Printing. This is a novel, non-contact, rapid prototyping technique that deposits known amounts of solvated, functional materials. Up do date, I've worked on optimizing the printer, including documenting its reproducibility over time. Most recently, I've been working on printing biologically active molecules, reacting them with a precursor, and characterizing their subsequent properties using scanning electron microscopy or bright field imaging.

2nd Year Students

Anh Hoang

The ultimate goal of my project is to design an antibody for the malaria pigment, hemozoin.

Postdoc

Catherine Prudom

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a recently discovered respiratory virus responsible for as many as 20% of viral lower respiratory infections in children and is a significant cause of morbidity in the eldery and immunocompromised individuals. hMPV is a type I viral fusion protein with the same mechanism of entry into the lost cell as HIV, Ebola, RSV, influenza and other type I viruses. Inhibition of viral fusion by heptad repeat (HR) peptides has been successful in treatment of HIV and is being studied in other viruses as well. Recently HR peptides for hMPV have been tested that may present a new class of fusion inhibitor. Detailed studies into the mechanism of action are underway as well as optimization of the inhibitor length and sequence.