October 23, 2015
Fighting Stigmas with Science: HPV-16 and Oral Cancer Research
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most commonly contracted sexually transmitted virus in the world. Despite HPV's commonality there is still much to be discovered about its life and replication cycle. Although it has been brought to public attention by its role in cervical cancer and its prevention by vaccines such as Gardasil, comparatively little attention has been given to its implications for other types of cancer, including oropharyngeal cancer. This is the focus of the Morgan laboratory, a part of an integrated medical and dental research laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University. This presentation will address common misconceptions of HPV as a sexually transmitted infection, discuss the experience of doing higher-level research as an undergraduate, and explore a variety of scientific approaches used in structural and functional analysis of HPV-16, including: western blot analysis, plasmid DNA isolation, and cell culture.
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