Professor Erin Weber from the Carthage College Chemistry Department was recently awarded the National Science Foundation’s Building Research Capacity of New Faculty in Biology grant for her project titled “Development of Two Biochemical Tools to Study Potato Virus Y Infection in Plants.”
Potato Virus Y (PVY) is a widespread virus affecting up to 80 percent of potato crops worldwide. The grant supports her work in understanding how PVY infects plants by creating two biochemical tools. The first is an enzymatic-based reporter that will allow real-time detection as the virus moves throughout the plant. This tool will be used to investigate the mechanism of viral spread in a living plant and identification of potential host resistance mechanisms.
The second tool is a synthetic PVY genome that can be modified to study the impact of viral mutations. These same tools can also be adapted to study other host-pathogen systems.
The award, totaling $489,983 over three years, will help Prof. Weber jumpstart her research program by supporting summer research students, including opportunities for students to present their work at national conferences, and facilitating the purchase of new cutting-edge equipment that will allow students to better prepare for future careers and graduate schools.
Interested parties are encouraged to contact Prof. Weber, at eweber1@carthage.edu, for more information.