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Christine Clouser is an American virologist. During her graduate studies she discovered an interest in retro viruses and has since published scientific articles on the feline leukemia virus and HIV virus.

Education and experience

Clouser started her undergraduate studies in 1993, and obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota in 1998. She entered graduate school in 1998. During her graduate studies she completed a dissertation on the regulation of luteinizing hormone receptor, an mRNA binding protein. Clouser completed her graduate studies in 2006. She obtained a Master of Science and PhD in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan.

After completing her graduate studies, she moved to Minnesota, where she became a postdoctoral fellow for the University of Minnesota. In 2014 she began teaching as a research assistant professor for the University of Minnesota, working with Louis Mansky and Steven Patterson.

Contributions to virology research

Clouser works with Dr. Louis Mansky and Dr. Steven Patterson to investigate antiviral properties of ribonucleoside and nucleoside analogues against the human immunodeficiency virus. In their laboratory model system, two nucleoside analogues, decitabine and gemcitabine, have been found to cause lethal mutagenesis of the HIV-1 virus when used combination therapy. These two drugs are FDA approved and used interventionally as chemotherapy drugs. When used together, they have been found to have strong antiviral properties against HIV-1 by causing the virus to rapidly mutate, lose virulence factors, and become non-infectious.

There are advantages to using existing pharmaceuticals already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for treating conditions with new implications. The development of new pharmaceuticals takes time and very is costly when compared to drug repositioning: the application of using known drugs for new purposes. When HIV-1 cells were cultured and investigated in the laboratory, the research team of Christine Clouser, Louis Mansky, and Steven Patterson found a novel combination therapy for rendering the HIV-1 virus harmless by using a combination therapy of decitabine and gemcitabine. Clouse anticipate finding a way to deliver both of these in pill form, as both are currently delivered intravenously and used as treatments for other conditions.

References

1. "Christine L Clouser, PhD".
2. "Volume 70 Issue 4 | Review of the journal Biology of Reproduction".
3. "Drug design success propels efforts to fight HIV with a combination of 2 FDA-approved drugs". ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
4. Clouser, Christine; Crankshaw, Duane; Briggs, Jacquie; Mansky, Louis; Patterson, Steven; Mullett, Mary; O'Sullivan, Gerard; Holtz, Colleen (April 2012). "Activity of a Novel Combined Antiretroviral Therapy of Gemcitabine and Decitabine in a Mouse Model for HIV-1". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 56 (4): 1942–1948. doi:10.1128/AAC.06161-11. PMC 3318345. PMID 22271861.
5. Mansky, Louis; Clouser, Christine; Bonnac, Laurent; Patterson, Steven (December 2014). "Characterization of Permeability, Stability and Anti-HIV-1 Activity of Decitabine and Gemcitabine Divalerate Prodrugs". Antiviral Chemistry & Chemotherapy. 23 (6): 223–230. doi:10.3851/IMP2682. PMC 4489529. PMID 23994876.
6. Clouser, Christine; Mansky, Louis; Patterson, Steven (July 2010). "Exploiting Drug Repositioning for Discovery of a Novel HIV Combination Therapy". Journal of Virology. 84 (18): 9301–9308. doi:10.1128/JVI.01006-10. PMC 2937626. PMID 20610712.
7. Dapp, Michael; Clouser, Christine; Mansky, Louis; Patterson, Steven (September 2009). "5-Azacytidine Can Induce Lethal Mutagenesis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1". Journal of Virology. 83 (22): 11950–11958. doi:10.1128/JVI.01406-09. PMC 2772699. PMID 19726509.

• Living people
• American virologists
• University of Minnesota faculty
• University of Michigan alumni
• St. Cloud State University alumni