PUBlic Professor Series | Dr. Trushar Patel
How not to get viral: Understanding the communication between viruses and humans
Dr. Trushar Patel, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Dr. Patel's goal is to obtain detailed insights into how viral nucleic acids interact with host proteins by employing interdisciplinary approaches. Information on the specific sites of host proteins that communicate with viral nucleic acids will ultimately allow the development of therapeutics that prevent host-viral communication. These interactions are essential for the survival and replication of the virus - stopping the interactions is thus of benefit for treating viral infection. Patel's research program is timely given recent global incidences of viral outbreaks and, in many cases, the lack of available treatment and the failure of currently available drugs designed to target viral components. In this PUBlic Professor Series talk, he will provide an overview of human-viral communications and discuss some of his recent work.
Trushar Patel is an emerging leader in the biophysical characterization of nucleic acids-protein and protein-protein complexes that are at the heart of viral infections. He was recruited to the University of Lethbridge in 2016 and subsequently was awarded the prestigious Canada Research Chair in 2017. In recognition of his early career success, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. Before joining the University of Lethbridge, he received a distinguished Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship to work at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research post-doctoral fellowship to work at the University of Manitoba (Canada). Despite being at the early stage of his career, Trushar has published >70 peer-reviewed publications and several Editorial articles. He is also one of the youngest editors of the European Biophysics Journal.
With special thanks to our talk sponsor:
