http://illinois.edu/calendar/Calendar?calId=1818 Bioengineering department events. http://illinois.edu/calendar/Calendar?calId=1818&eventId=123068&ACTION=VIEW_EVENT Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:30:00 CST http://illinois.edu/calendar/Calendar?calId=1818&eventId=121342&ACTION=VIEW_EVENT Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 CST Antiviral signaling pathway mediated by RIG-I Abstract: Virus infection remains a deadly disease even after development of numerous vaccines mainly due to the mutable nature of viral genome posing a constant threat to the public health. How do our cells cope with this situation? The early detection of invading viruses relies on a limited number of pathogen recognition receptors. Retinoic acid inducible gene-I (RIG-I) emerges as a key receptor for sensing RNA viruses including influenza and HCV. Unlike other antiviral receptors found in specialized immune cells, RIG-I is a universal protein resident in all cell types. RIG-I is a cytosolic multi-domain protein that detects viral RNA and elicits an antiviral immune response. Using single-molecule fluorescence assays we discovered a robust, ATP-powered dsRNA translocation activity of RIG-I. Our result explains how two different molecular patterns of viruses can be functionally integrated by RIG-I activity. Biography: When looking down on streets of Chicago from the 30th floor of a skyscraper, one would see a high density of cars and people buzzing around all over the place. It would look as if everyone is everywhere at any given time. When observed at an individual level, however one would exhibit a unique pattern of movement characterized by speed of walking or driving, direction of travel, and pauses taken en route. Such a heterogeneous behavior is hidden when taken at an average. Likely, molecules which constitute a cell of our body have unique pattern of location, movement and interactions with neighboring molecules. The main tool of my research is single molecule fluorescence assay which enables us to observe such molecular dynamics one molecule at a time. My recent work involves investigating antiviral signaling pathway by a newly developed single molecule fluorescence assay as well as cell imaging techniques.