Sites - South Africa
Institute:
Stellenbosch is one of the top four research universities in South Africa. The University's Faculty of Health Sciences, including the Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research and the Medical Biochemistry unit, benefits from close links with the Western Cape's four health districts, providing both epidemiological data and clinical samples. Laboratories are equipped for real-time, multiplex PCR amplification, antibody-based molecular detection (ie. ELISA), host and pathogen DNA sequence analysis, molecular-based blot hybridization for drug-resistance screening, and other modern biochemistry techniques required for studying the molecular epidemiology of TB. The campus also has biosafety facilities, high-speed internet connection, and other modern technology required for advanced laboratory research.
Host Investigator:
Dr. Paul Van Helden is the head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
UC Berkeley Investigator:
Dr. Thomas C. Alber is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a member of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) division of physical biosciences. He also directs the UC Berkeley Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases. The Alber group studies the general areas of protein dynamics, signaling in tuberculosis and host interactions of HIV. Recent undergraduate students in the Alber lab have studied the signals received by M. tuberculosis protein kinases, crystallized a terpene cyclase that makes a signaling lipid essential for TB, determined the crystal structure f an essential phosphatase from Staph. aureus, mapped the domains of the human partners of HIV Nef protein, and carried out a genetic selection for mutants of an enzyme that simultaneously restore function and protein motions. Techniques employed routinely range from basic molecular biology, biophysics and biochemistry, X-ray crystallography, computational analysis of proteins and genetic studies of M. tuberculosis and host systems. The trainees will gain exposure to a technically comprehensive and rigorous molecular approach to the general problems of pathogen and host signaling mechanisms.
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