To be eligible for funding consideration, all sections of the form must be completed. Applicants must strictly adhere to formatting guidelines (Table 1), word/character limits and attached sections...

CWRF Early Career Researcher Grant
1

The Cash-Waiste Research Foundation Early Career Researcher Grant
Instructions for the applicant
To be eligible for funding consideration, all sections of the form must be completed. Applicants must
strictly adhere to formatting guidelines (Table 1), word/character limits and attached sections must
use the suggested headings. Completed forms must be submitted by the deadline, 5PM, 21
st
of
October.
1. Name of applicant


2. Applicant's institutional address
3. Title of grant application
To find if it is possible to prevent premature clearance of infected cells by sub division of
host cell apoptotic response. F1L anti-apoptotic cells are observed to inhibit the
mitochondrial checkpoint and have caspase-9 inhibitor activity. The primary objective of the
project is to develop a strategy to remove the infected cells from the body such that the cells
having potent activity can perform their function independently without any hindrance. The
idea is to assist the host cell by clearing the infected cells prematurely. The virus cell possess
the strategy to subvert the check points available in the host cell and subsequently result in
the host cell break down releasing the viral components into the microenvironment. The
evasion of apoptosis by the viral cells result in the accumulation unwanted foreign bodies in
the body which has itself developed a method of self-defence against the host immune
system. It aims at developing a strong and better immunological defence against the virulent
behaviour.

Please complete sections 4-9 (overleaf) separately and attach to page 1 of the application.
CWRF Early Career Researcher Grant
2

4. Background to Proposed Study (400 words)
The background of the study involves the viral immune response observed in some pox
viruses. The viruses utilise a strategy to evade the immune response in host cells by
preventing the clearance of infected cells. They employ this strategy to be safe from the
immune response and increase their population in the host body to spread the infection. They
perform this evasion by inhibiting the mitochondrial checkpoint. Pox viruses perform this by
using a class of BCL – 1 protein while Vaccinia virus has F1L which does the same work.
Shawn et al (2005) identified that F1L expression at the time of infection results in inhibiting
the process of apoptosis and interferes with Bak activation. They found that the cells infected
with virus were resistant to the immune system’s strategy and as such evade themselves.
Stewart T. L. and his collegues identified that F1L is a tail-anchored protein that aims at
inhibiting apoptosis. Its functioning is primarily concentrated in the mitochondria. They
described the basic mechanism of action and stated that the N terminus of F1L is not involved
in the apoptosis inhibition. Instead, there exists a possibility these have a regulatory effect on
the signalling pathways of the body (Terajima, Urban and Leporati, 2012). Caspase – 9 is an
enzyme which is essential to perform the process of apoptosis. F1L has been identified as a
capase 9 inhibitor and it has enough potency to inhibit the process of apoptosis at the
mitochondrial level (Zhai et al., 2009). Marshall et al (2015) showed that viruses put forward
a defence mechanism for their survival and proliferation. This is survival strategy that they
portray in order to escape the immune system response. Some of the viruses have the
capability to express homologous sequences of Bcl – 2 proteins, which result in the immune
system being befooled that the virus particles are instead...