Nancy is the Principal Investigator on a five year team science RO1 grant with Drs. Robert Husson (Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School) and Ming Ouyang (UMass-Boston) to study the role of MazF toxins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis stress survival and establishment of latent tuberculosis.
This article highlights Valdir’s recent article in Nature Communications. Click here to see full article.
Honored to be one of the speakers at the tuberculosis (TB) symposium at the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, NY in the stunning Adirondack region. Great talks concluded with Bill Jacobs’ poignant summary of Edward Trudeau’s dedication to the study and management of TB. Picture: “Little Red” the first cottage for open air treatment of TB in the US; erected Read More
Valdir was awarded the 2019-20 Shatkin Scholarship for academic and scholarly accomplishments in graduate school. The award will be presented at the Annual Aaron Shatkin Lecture on Monday October 21. This summer, Valdir was also awarded a University and Louis Bevier Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year. This highly selective, Rutgers-wide fellowship rewards excellence by providing full support during a doctoral Read More
Valdir discovered that a single toxin does not slow M. tuberculosis growth by simply inhibiting protein synthesis. Instead, it reprograms M. tuberculosis cells by a novel mechanism. It first reduces the level of a SINGLE rare tRNA species, this leads to ribosome stalling at the mRNA codon requiring the depleted tRNA, which in turn reduces Read More
Valdir, Heather and Unnati hit the pub in London after a fantastic meeting with leaders in the field at the historic Cumberland lodge inside Windsor Great Park. Valdir and Nancy tag-teamed on oral presentations; Valdir and Unnati also presented posters.
When identifying toxin RNA targets, in vivo trumps in vitro. We used a battery of approaches to demonstrate that the best way to find the true RNA targets of endoribonuclease toxins is to study their activity in their natural host; here we demonstrate this using an M. tuberculosis toxin and host.
This annual meeting coincides with World TB Day; this year hosted by TB researchers at the David Axelrod Institute at the Wadsworth Center/New York Department of Health. Great chance to hear the latest and greatest research of colleagues in the Northeast!