Velia Garcia
Hometown: Mission, TX
Undergraduate Institution: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Current Stage and Institution: PhD student, Vanderbilt University
Discipline/Track: Chemistry
Research: Calprotectin (CP) is an S100 protein that plays a role in the inflammatory response by acting as a ligand for the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4). In the case of people with irritable bowel disease (IBD) these pathways are over-stimulated which leads to damage of the gastrointestinal tract. The goal of my work is to block the interaction of CP with these inflammatory receptors by developing high affinity inhibitors of CP.