Brady Travis Awarded NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship
Brady Travis was awarded an NRSA predoctoral fellowship, allowing him to receive individualized, mentored research training under the sponsorship of Dr. Maria Schumacher and in collaboration with Drs. Alberto Bartesaghi, Dick Brennan, and Simon Dove (Harvard).
Brady has two goals for his fellowship. In researching Francisella tularensis, he will solve a high-resolution (MglA-SspA)-PigR structure to aid in structure-based drug design and he will screen a small library of inhibitors identified via in silico screening by Atomwise, Inc. To achieve his second goal, he will utilize single-particle cryo-EM to solve structures of multiple Francisella RNAP complexes. He expects his work will lead to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying virulence activation in this highly infectious pathogen and expects the structures will provide novel targets unique to Francisella that can be used for rational drug design.