In article <ashok.458.0 at biochemistry.cwru.edu> ashok at biochemistry.cwru.edu (Ashok Aiyar) writes:
>In article <CHRIS.93Mar1172826 at scan.scan.genetik.uni-koeln.de> chris at scan.genetik.uni-koeln.de (Christian Schetter) writes:
>>>Anybody around working with iridoviruses?
>>I know someone at Cornell -- I think his name is James Casey, and he works
>with piscine (sp ?) -- anyway fish :-) retroviruses and iridoviruses.
>>>Is even someone reading this newsgroup?
>>Yes.
>>Ashok
>>
Here is an abstract of what Casey's lab is doing. You can search
through all the abstracts of everybody being funded by NIH via gopher
at merlot.welch.jhu.edu in the
14. Searching For Biologists/
directory.
If you've never heard of gopher write me a note and I'll send you some
information to get you started (don't worry gopher is free and on the net :-).
Happy searching,
Dan Jacobson
danj at welchgate.welch.jhu.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-PROJECT NUMBER......1 R01 CA53623-01A3
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
CASEY, JAMES W
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
123 DAY HALL
ITHACA, NY 14853
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION: CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA
TITLE Retroviral etiology of walleye dermal sarcoma
ABSTRACT:
The goal of this proposal, is to obtain fundamental information with
regard to the structural and functional organization of the walleye
dermal sarcoma virus (WDSV). We will utilize these data to examine the
epidemiological and molecular mechanisms responsible for the development
and regression of tumors in both experimental and natural infections of
walleyes. Using defined, molecular and immunological probes, we will
follow the fate of WDSV DNA, RNA and viral proteins in these tumors. In
addition to providing information as to the prevalence of infection in
natural fish populations, data from these analyses should provide further
insights into the molecular mechanisms responsible for tumorigenesis. We
propose to determine the complete nucleotide sequence of a full-length
molecular clone of WDSV. This will be accomplished using the Sanger
dideoxy sequencing procedure and will provide a foundation data base for
subsequent identification of transcriptional processing signals, and the
presence of nonstructural viral accessory genes. Northern blot analysis
and the construction and sequencing of viral cDNAs will be used to
establish a precise transcriptional map of the WDSV genome. We place
heavy emphasis on this approach in that our current data support the
hypothesis that a viral-encoded function, analogous to TAX and TAT of
HTLV-1 and HIV, respectively, is responsible for tumor induction in
walleyes. Concurrent with these studies, we propose to investigate the
in vitro tropism of WDSV through infection studies and DNA transfection
experiments. A major aim will be to establish a cell culture system for
WDSV and use this system to investigate transcriptional regulation and to
characterize biologically active molecular clones of WDSV. To carry out
these studies we plan to develop specific immunological reagents to
follow the fate of virus, both in vivo and in vitro. An extension of the
current in vivo transmission studies will identify the in vivo cellular
targets of WDSV, routes of infection and eventually allow for induction
of tumors by well-characterized viral molecular clones.
