BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Wolbachia\, African-River Blindness and Big Sur - Professor Willia
 m Sullivan\, Molecular\, Cell\, and Developmental Biology\, University of 
 California\, Santa Cruz
DTSTART:20220519T160000Z
DTEND:20220519T170000Z
UID:TALK161101@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Caroline Newnham
DESCRIPTION:Wolbachia are obligate\, intracellular\, bacterial endosymbion
 ts present in over 60% of all insect species. Manipulation of host reprodu
 ction and efficient maternal transmission have facilitated the global spre
 ad of Wolbachia in arthropods. Wolbachia are also present in filarial nema
 todes and are the leading cause of River Blindness and Elephantiasis.   Ou
 r lab has focussed on the molecular and cellular interactions that mediate
  Wolbachia replication and transmission through insect and nematode germli
 nes.  Our studies demonstrate that efficient germline transmission of Wolb
 achia requires a developmentally coordinated association with plus and min
 us end motor proteins followed by a stable association in conserved germli
 ne determinants.  In addition\, Wolbachia manipulates host chromatin remod
 elers and the cell cycle to its advantage.  Surveys of wild Drosophila pop
 ulations reveals Wolbachia also stably populates host somatic lineages inc
 luding the adult brain.  Consequently we were able to generate stably Wolb
 achia infected Drosophila cell lines.  This facilitated high-throughput ce
 ll-based screens for small molecule compounds that specifically target Wol
 bachia.  We describe the identification of Albendazole sulfone\, an FDA ap
 proved metabolite of Albendazole\, that specifically disrupts Wolbachia re
 plication in Brugia malayi\, the nematode associated with Elephantiasis an
 d \nRiver Blindness.\n
LOCATION:Zoom meeting
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR