Research News
Postdoctoral fellow in Ocular Virology Laboratory receives prestigious American Heart Association fellowship
Vaibhav Tiwari , Ph.D, a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Deepak Shukla’s Ocular Virology Laboratory, has been awarded an American Heart Association fellowship. Dr. Tiwari received his Ph.D in Biotechnology from Banaras Hindu University in India.
The research focus of the Ocular Virology Lab, where Dr. Tiwari conducts his research, is ocular herpes. Ocular herpes is a form of the herpes virus that affects the eye. According to the National Eye Institute, it is the most common infectious cause of corneal blindness in the U.S, and once people develop the disease they have up to a 50% chance of having a recurrence. In order to infect the eye, the herpes virus needs a mode of transportation. Much of the research in the Ocular Virology Lab focuses on exactly how ocular herpes makes its way into healthy eye cells and spreads.
Dr. Tiwari is studying blood flow and coagulation in the eye’s blood vessels. He is examining the molecular mechanisms that help maintain the blood flow through vessels by controlling blood clotting. Clotting occurs when proteins expressed within specific molecules of the blood vessel walls interact with other proteins – those of blood molecules or of microbes carried in the blood supply. Dr. Tiwari hopes to identify how the molecular mechanism involved in blood clotting may contribute to the entry and spread of the herpes virus into healthy eye cells.
“Using phage display screening, I will identify novel peptides that will affect binding to both AT and HSV-1 gD. These novel peptides isolated against 3-OST-5 modify HS that enhances AT binding and could be used as an anticoagulant drug. While peptides that block HSV-1 gD binding could be developed as inhibitors to the herpes infection,” said Dr. Tiwari.
“The American Heart Association Postdoctoral fellowship is an honor that will allow me to continue with the best postdoctoral training possible,” he continued.
Specifically, Dr. Tiwaris’s research focuses on understanding the difference between the anticoagulant heparin sulfate created by two separate enzymes, heperan sulfate 3-O-sulfotransferase isoform 1 and isoform 5. Previous research has indicated that these two enzymes are critical in the synthesis of the anticoagulant heparin sulfate. The reaction of the heparin sulfate with a protese inhibitor called antithrombin acts as an anticoagulant mechanism in blood vessel walls. In addition to understanding the differences in the anticoagulant heparin sulfate, the research Dr. Tiwari is working on will also generate peptides – fundamental building blocks of proteins – during the screening process that will be useful to other research underway in the Ocular Virology Lab.
While Dr. Tiwari’s findings will not only help further our understanding of ocular herpes infection and spread, it will also allow heart specialists to further their knowledge of crucial mechanisms involved in blood coagulation – the reason for AHA support of his work. Research conducted at the microbial level, such as Dr. Tiwari’s, produces results that can be useful in many different areas of science.
The AHA fellowship will support two years of Dr. Tiwari’s research.
"This AHA postdoctoral fellowship awarded to Dr. Tiwari is recognition of the broader scope and significance of our research on ocular herpes. Clearly, this prestigious fellowship will boost the career development prospects of Dr. Tiwari, while allowing him to continue studying heparan sulfate 3-O-sulfotransferases, the enzymes that are crucial for both ocular herpes infections and blood clotting mechanisms,” remarked Dr. Shukla.
Click here to view scientific abstract of Dr. Tiwari’s project.