Current Projects

Here are the current Personalied Genomics Laboratory Projects

CPRIT-HIHR

PI DA Iacobas

Gene Master Regulators Approach for Personalized Cancer Gene Therapy

Studies proposed in this Application will test on blood, brain, lung, prostate and thyroid standard human cancer cell lines that silencing the Gene Master Regulators kills selectively the cells it commands.

Specific Aims

PVAMU ORISP FRDGP

PI DA Iacobas

Complement C5ar1 Antagonists for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders

This is part of a long standing research collaboration of Iacobaslab with the labs of Dr. Velisek (New York Medical College-NYMD), Dr. Veliskova (NYMC), Dr. Borges (Queensland University School of Biomedical Sciences) and Dr. Chachua (Danbury Hospital, CT). We use Dr. Velisek’s ASD rat model to test whether PMX53, a complement C5ar1 antagonist, is efficient in restoring the synaptic neurotransmission in the hypothalamic paraventricular node altered by NMDA-triggered the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dr. Chachua isolates the paraventricular nodes collected from male and female rats exposed to five experimental conditions. Our studies run in parallel with electrophysiological studies performed by the group of Dr. Velisekova, behavioral studies performed by the group of Dr. Velisek and physio-pathological studies performed by the group of Dr. Borges.

Specific Aims

PVAMU ORISP FRDGP

PI N Ede (advisor DA Iacobas)

Development of Cancer GMR Software Package for Personalized Cancer Gene Therapy

This Project develops all the computer software programs needed to efficiently do the calculations for determining the Gene Master Regulators (GMRs) on a large-scale level. All software programs are being designed using the Anaconda distribution of Python 3 with statistical and graphical user interface packages such as SciPy and Tkinter. The GMR Software Package will include executable programs to determine the functional pathways from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Database, the Gene Commanding Height (GCH) and Weighted Pathway Regulation (WPR).

PI DA Iacobas

Transcriptional profiling of the rat retina after optic nerve crush

In collaboration with scientists from: Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz (Brazil) and Albert Einstein College of medicine (NY).