Biology prof receives $300K grant for HIV research

Biology professor Anding Shen recently landed a $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the role of endothelial cells in HIV infection. Her research could have a significant effect on the treatment of AIDS.
See full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/studying-latent-hiv-through-an-nih-grant
During the next three summers and her fall 2012 sabbatical, Shen and five student researchers will be co-culturing endothelial cells and T-cells (growing them in the same dish), infecting the T-cells with HIV, and looking for latent reservoirs in the T-cells. She is trying to find out how these cells are signaling to each other, specifically what the endothelial cells are doing to the T-cells to make them more permissible for HIV infection.
"These are very important questions for HIV latent reservoir research," Shen said, "Until now the field has not realized the importance of endothelial cells. If we discover that endothelial cells are indeed critical in latent reservoir formation, it will change the whole paradigm of the field."
Shen has been studying the HIV latent reservoir since graduate school. She earned a B.S. in biology in 1998 at Drexel University and a Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in 2004. Shen began teaching at Calvin in 2005.
Contact Shen at 616-526-6025 or at as28@calvin.edu
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Received on Fri Aug 26 13:57:58 2011