Garcia-Blanco, Mariano

Research Interests:

Human and viral genes are complex genetic units of information that are tightly regulated. The groups at Duke University (Durham, USA) and Duke-NUS (Singapore) study the regulation of gene expression in human pathogenic flaviviruses. These agents are major health risks in the tropics and represent an emerging danger to the US population and dengue is an ever-present danger to the population of Singapore. In fact Singapore is a hub for the study of dengue and we hope to contribute our unique RNA biology expertise to this epicenter of dengue work.

Using biochemical purification and proteomic analysis, and systematic RNAi screens the laboratory is identifying host factors, many of which are RNA binding proteins, that are required for viral propagation. Once these host factors are identified we will set out to discover inhibitors of the critical host-pathogen interactions mediated by these factors with the hope of developing novel antiviral agents.

Selected Publications:

Arroyo, J.I., Apperson, S.A., Cropp, C.B., Marafino, B.J. Jr., Monath, T.P., Tesh, R.B., Shope, R.E. and Garcia-Blanco, M.A. (1988). Effect of human gamma interferon on yellow fever virus infection. Amer. J. Trop. Med and Hyg. 38: 647-650.

Garcia-Blanco, M.A. and Cullen B.R. (1991). Molecular basis of latency in pathogenic human viruses. Science 254: 815-820.

Florez, P., Sessions, O., Wagner, E., Gromeier, M., and Garcia-Blanco, M.A. (2005) The Polypyrimidine tract binding protein is required for efficient picornavirus gene expression and propagation. J. Virol., 79, 6172-9.

Anwar A., Leong K.M., Ng M.L., Chu J.H., and Garcia-Blanco M.A. (2009) The polypyrimidine tract binding protein is required for efficient dengue virus propagation and associates with the viral replication machinery. J Biol Chem., 284(25):17021-9.

Sessions O.M., Barrows N.J., Souza-Neto J.A., Robinson T.J., Hershey C.L., Rodgers M.A., Ramirez J.L., Dimopoulos G., Yang P.L., Pearson J.L., and Garcia-Blanco M.A. (2009) Discovery of Insect and Human Dengue Virus Host Factors. Nature, 458, 1047-1050.