A discovery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that a viral protein helps a cancer-associated herpesvirus evade the immune system has led to a five-year, $2.9 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Craig Forrest, Ph.D., will use the grant to help reveal functions of the viral protein known as latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA). The research is focused on LANA’s roles during infection by the gamma herpesvirus known as Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV).
Forrest, a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology, hopes the work will someday lead to a vaccine for Kaposi sarcoma and other cancers caused by gamma herpesviruses…