CHE 598 Seminar: Deciphering host responses to reduce vector-borne pathogenic infections
About the event
Presenter: Dr. Alan Goodman, Associate Professor, School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University
Innate immunity refers to the body’s initial response to curb infection upon exposure to invading organisms. While the detection of pathogen-associated molecules is an ancient form of host defense, if dysfunctional, microbial or autoimmune disease may result. The innate immune response during pathogenic infection is initiated through the activation of receptors recognizing conserved molecular patterns, such as nucleic acids from a pathogens’ genome or replicative cycle. Work in our lab utilizes the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, to study the innate immune responses to viral and bacterial infections, with the long-term goal of identifying novel genes that are implicated in the host response to infection and whose function is conserved in vertebrate animals. To this end, we employ genome-wide screening approaches to identify host factors involved in the immune response to Coxiella burnetii and West Nile virus. Namely, our lab utilizes the Drosophila Genetics Reference Panel, a fully sequenced, inbred panel of fly lines derived from a natural population, to perform a pathway-unbiased screen for genetic variants associated with susceptibility to infections with Coxiella or West Nile virus. Following our screens, we identify orthologous mammalian genes and determine their role during infection. The novelty of our work lies in its ability to utilize an animal host that exhibits mortality to BSL2 strains of Coxiella and West Nile virus to perform pathway-unbiased gene discovery through a genome-wide association study. The findings from our lab will have an important positive impact, because the identification of host factors that confer susceptibility to Coxiella and West Nile virus infection will be useful in the long-term goal of better prediction of pathogen spread, disease progression, and therapeutic intervention.