2024 Tullie and Rickey Families Spark Awards Winner
Jingru Fang, Ph.D.
“SPARK funding will allow me to apply cutting-edge spatial genomic technology to identify key molecules that protect bats from illness caused by devastating viral infections. These molecules have the potential to offer universal protection in humans against multiple classes of viral pathogens such as Ebola, Nipah, and SARS-CoV2.”
How do bats tolerate viral infections that are otherwise fatal in humans?
Funded: February 2024
Funded by: The generosity of LJI Board Director Sandor Shapery and Rebecca Shapery
My SPARK project explores why bat-associated viruses, like Ebola, are harmless in bats but deadly in humans. I aim to uncover how these viruses form structures in infected cells, known as viral factories. Preliminary experiments in both human and bat cells suggest that these viral factories can trap cellular mRNAs and make it harder for the host’s immune system to fight infection. My ongoing analysis will help identify which mRNAs are trapped by the viral factories in human cells.
My next steps will be to validate these findings in bat cells and measure the impact of mRNA trapping a cell’s ability to produce antiviral proteins. Understanding how these viruses manipulate immune responses differently in bats and humans could lead to new strategies for boosting immunity and developing effective treatments for infectious diseases such as Ebola.
So far, my research has also supported the continued use of a cutting-edge spatial transcriptomics technique called MERFISH to investigate viral factories. I’m currently using MERFISH to map and count over a hundred cellular antiviral mRNAs in human cells carrying Ebola viral factories.
