Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Stress is defined as any adverse stimulus, physical, mental or emotional, internal or external, that tends to disturb the organisms homeostasis and elicit compensating biological reactions. In our modern society, we live under various stress but we somehow adapt and go on with our lives. Likewise, cells within our bodies can change the modes of essential function in reaction to certain stress. Protein synthesis is indispensable for the integrity of cellular structure and function. There is a unique way of protein synthesis which becomes active under nutrient starvation, cell injury and cell death. We believe that this translation system plays important roles to maintain cellular homeostasis under stress. Our goal in this proposal is to answer how cells regulate the unique protein synthesis under stress conditions. The proposed study can readily provide thesis projects for one or two graduate students. The trainees will have exposure to a broad range of research experiences, such as molecular biology cellular biology and protein biochemistry. The highly Qualified Personnel trained in the proposed research program will be of great significance to the Canadian scientific community in the future, such as academics and health research institutions, biotechnology companies and government agencies.