Five-year National Institute of Health (NIH) grant awarded to Molecular Biosciences Faculty

LAWRENCE—For the next five years, The National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health will be funding the research project, Uncovering the Biochemical Mechanisms of Riboregulatory Interaction Involving the Hepatitis C Virus 3'X RNA, through the Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA).

Erik Holmstrom, an assistant professor with the Department of Molecular Biosciences, will use the $1.8 million in funding to study a vital piece of genetic material contained within the hepatitis C virus (HCV), a leading factor in liver diseases.

The research will determine how the molecular structure of a critical RNA element located at the end of the hepatitis C virus genome changes when it interacts with other viral RNAs and how these structural changes control essential biological processes like viral replication and assembly. The findings made during this project will clarify the fundamental biochemical mechanisms governing the function of this specific viral RNA element and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the functional capabilities of non-protein coding RNAs. Additionally, this research may also unveil critical vulnerabilities in HCV viral replication that could be disrupted by drugs, giving rise to novel therapeutic strategies to treat individuals suffering from this devastating disease.

The grant’s research will be conducted at the University of Kansas with support from the Cryo-EM research facility at the University of Kansas Medical Center.