Exploring the RNAome and RNA-protein interactome of parasite extracellular vesicles
Supervisors:
Paul McVeigh, School of Biological Sciences, (Queens University Belfast)
Katarzyna Modrzynska,School of Infection and Immunity (University of Glasgow)
Summary:
Helminth and apicomplexan parasites are responsible for many of the world’s most intractable infectious diseases in both humans and production animals. Combatting these pathogens is hindered by reliance on a small cohort of anti-parasitic drugs, alongside increasing instances of drug-resistant parasite populations. Improved understanding of parasite biology can help identify new treatments, particularly in the realm of parasite-host interactions. Parasites release a molecular cocktail into their hosts, evolved to establish a survivable niche, key to which is modulation of host anti-parasite immunity. This secretome has in recent years been shown to include RNA and RNA-binding proteins, the exact functions of which are poorly understood. This project seeks to understand the nature of parasite secretion through quantitative and qualitative analysis of extracellular vesicles (EVs), and characterization of RNA-protein interactions associated with EVs. This work will address some of the major unknowns in parasite-host RNA communication, transforming our understanding of this important but under-studied aspect of infection biology.
This successful student will be based in Paul McVeigh’s lab at Queen’s University Belfast, with placement periods spent in Katarzyna Modrzynska’s lab at the University of Glasgow. The student will be exposed to training in command line bioinformatics, parasite culture/maintenance, quantitative (q) and digital droplet (dd)PCR, protein detection, mass spectrometry, immunoprecipitation and next-generation sequencing (NGS).