Document Type

Honors Project

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

Hepatitis B is a vaccine preventable liver disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chronic hepatitis B currently affects about 296 million people around the world, killing 820,000 annually. There is currently no cure for chronic hepatitis B, but research over the last decade has identified hepatitis B X protein (HBx) as a promising therapeutic target. Specifically, inhibiting the interaction between HBx and human protein DDB1 could disrupt HBx function. An essential step in the drug development process is to create an assay that is capable of high-throughput screening millions of compounds for activity against HBx-DDB1. This research aims to design and optimize a high-throughput capable assay for the HBx-DDB1 interaction using the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system in S. cerevisiae. This assay could eventually be used to screen for novel drug compounds to treat chronic hepatitis B.

Level of Honors

summa cum laude

Department

Biology

Advisor

Judith Humphries

Included in

Biology Commons

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