College of Medicine

Sathvik Bilakanti is a Junior in the Interdisciplinary Medical Science Degree Program, majoring in Health Management, Policy, and Information. He received the Scott and Ina McNichols Grant to do research in the Tomko Lab in the College of Medicine. He looked at an obligate intracellular parasite called Microsporidia, which can infect immunocompromised patients. Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Tomko, Assistant Professor, Biological Science, Sathvik looked specifically at the proteasome of the Microsporidia, which has been shown to be ideal to research. The aim was to create nanobodies that could help potentially find a cure for this parasite since as of now there are no tools to manipulate or purify the microsporidial proteasome. Follow the link for more information about this research project: https://hsfhouseblogs.com/2021/04/27/sathvik-bilakanti-developing-nanobodies-to-combat-parasites/