The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provided roughly $500,000 to researchers studying disease infection in bystander cells—those next to infected cells but not themselves—after they had received antibiotic therapy.
After receiving a R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, Zhibo Yang, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, and Laura-Isobel McCall, an associate professor of bioanalytical chemistry at San Diego State University, are teaming up again for their second major collaborative effort. Their first study examined the mechanisms leading to drug failure in cells infected with bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
“Our new research originated from our previous collaboration. In our original work, we only focused on infected cells. But as we looked at the nearby cells, we noticed that their metabolism was getting closer to the infected cells. Cells that are farther from the infected cells didn’t demonstrate this change in metabolism. This study will allow us to examine the spatial aspect of possible disease progression.”
Zhibo Yang, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma
New Scientific Institute in NY to Engineer Immune Cells | Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
McCall continued, “Cancer has historically received a lot of attention in our field, and for good reason. Less well-known disorders, however, still require further research and understanding. We think our work will contribute to broadening the scope of research on different diseases.”
The award will not only finance this innovative study but also give graduate and undergraduate students at Yang’s OU mass spectrometry lab and undergraduate students at SDSU’s McCall lab access to practical training experiences.
“This award will also let other researchers know that single-cell mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry imaging can be used for many different kinds of important research,” Yang stated. “We know we can do so much more with this technology.”
View the complete list of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awardees for Measuring Metabolism Across Scales and discover why Yang and McCall’s proposal is unique in that it is the only one focused on infectious diseases and the only research programme situated in Oklahoma that was chosen for funding in this round.
