Similar Research from a Different Perspective!

 

I enjoyed being able to here about the various research projects going on by my fellow B-Surfers. It was interesting hearing the different problems/questions posed and seeing the ways and which these research questions were being answered. I found it intriguing how some of us were looking at similar topics or ideas but the ways in which we tackled the problems and the methods we used were completely different. With that being said I found Ayana’s project particularly interesting.

Although me and Ayana are both focusing on Cryptococcus neofromans and the ways by which we can treat this fungal pathogen, her project project looks at this opportunistic human fungal pathogen from a different perspective. While my project focuses on controlling sexual reproduction of Cryptococcus by regulating its essential gene expression Ayana’s project is focusing on a transcription factor of Cryptococcus that could play a role in its virulence. Tests have shown that when you delete the BZP4 transcription factor in a host, the fungal pathogen is no longer able to kill that host which is a very interesting finding. She is current running more experiments to confirm this finding but if this is true then its a major breakthrough in finding an efficient method of treating illness caused by Cryptococcus neoformans. 

 

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