Respire

Abstract

“Core of an illness” is an abstract representation of one of the clinical signs caused by Marek’s disease virus (MDV), oncogenesis. MDV is the causative agent of Marek’s disease, an oncogenic disease in chickens that causes significant problems for the poultry industry. Vaccination prevents the development of tumors when a chicken is infected, but doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus into naïve birds. My research focuses on understanding how a viral glycoprotein, that is essential for transmission of MDV, facilitates this process with the overall goal to design better vaccines that could prevent the spread of the disease.