Ph.D. - University of Kansas, 1983
Associate Professor
Center for Agricultural Biotechnology
Plant Sciences Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
2132 Plant Sciences Bldg., Campus 5821
CAB, Plant Sciences Bldg., Rm. 6126 Campus 4456
Phone: (301)-405-4777
E-mail: vakharia@umbi.umd.edu
Research Interests: Molecular biology and virology; cloning and expression of foreign genes; pathogenesis.
My laboratory is studying the molecular biology of economically important poultry disease viruses and focuses on developing rational strategies for the diagnosis and control of viral infections.
Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) is a pathogen of major economic importance to the poultry industry. It causes severe immunodeficiency in young chickens by destroying the lymphoid cells in the bursa of Fabricius. To develop a safe, economical, and effective subunit vaccine for IBDV, we cloned and sequenced the large genomic RNA segment of variant IBDVs and studied the molecular basis of antigenic variation. Several full-length cDNA and chimeric cDNA clones of various IBDV strains were prepared and expressed in a baculovirus expression system to identify the major neutralization sites on IBDV. Expression of these genes in insect cells resulted in the synthesis of IBDV structural proteins that self-assembled to form "virus-like" particles of IBDV. A single dose of this genetically engineered IBDV vaccine supplied to susceptible chickens conferred complete active and passive protection against challenge with various IBDV strains. Recently, we developed a system for generating live IBDV by using synthetic transcripts derived from cloned cDNA. With this reverse genetics system, we are studying the role of IBDV protein(s) in pathogenesis and developing a new generation of live attenuated vaccine.
Another research project under way in my laboratory is the study of avian reovirus, which causes viral arthritis syndrome and malabsorption in young chickens. Avian reovirus is a member of the Reoviridae family, and its genome consists of 10 double-stranded RNA segments (~1,200 to 4,000 base pairs each). To study the role of viral genes and proteins in the immune response and in pathogenesis, we have characterized the polypeptides of reovirus and have prepared a cDNA library of total genomic RNA. The complete nucleotide sequences of the major outer capsid protein genes (µB, *B, and *C) have been determined. Work is in progress to characterize the other genomic segments of reovirus and to study the structure-function relationship of these genes.
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