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Katherine Belov (born 1973) is an Australian geneticist, and professor of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney. She is a specialist in the research on the cancer which is decimating the Tasmanian devil. Throughout her career, she has disproved a theory concerning genetic diversity of marsupial immune systems, characterized the South American gray short-tailed opossum's immune genes, participated in the Playpus Genome Project, led research identifying the properties of platypus venom, and identified the cause of the spread of the Tasmanian devil's contagious cancer. ==Biography== Katherine Belov was born in Sydney, Australia in 1973 to Nick and Larissa Belov. Both of her parents were immigrants to Australia and of Russian heritage. Belov grew up in West Ryde, New South Wales and pursued her undergraduate degree at Macquarie University in human genetics. She was persuaded to change from human genetics to typing animal genetics by a professor who would become her PhD supervisor, and initially worked on grey kangaroos, but quickly changed to the study of marsupials. She challenged a theory by another researcher who believed that marsupials did not have a highly developed immune system and proved that they were very healthy animals because of their sophisticated immune development. The research inspired her to enroll in a Phd program on marsupial immunology at the University of Technology Sydney. She earned her PhD in 2002, and began her postdoctoral work at the Australian Museum with an Australian Research Council Fellowship. In 2004, as part of the team working with Frank Grützner of the University of Adelaide, Belov became one of the primary researchers to sequence the genome of the platypus. Her 2006 research on the gray short-tailed opossum, whose native habitat is in South America and which was the first marsupial to have its DNA sequenced, characterized the opossum's immune genes. That work led to breakthroughs in the monotreme research. The results, involving the work of over 100 international scientists, were published in ''Nature'' in May 2008. Among the findings were that the platypus has unique anti-microbial peptides with broad-spectrum potential for fighting a variety of bacteria and viruses, and possibly staph infections in humans.〔 The Playpus Genome Project, resulted in the first sequencing of a monotreme's DNA. Belov's research in this area continued and she now leads her own team of researchers from the University of Sydney. In 2010, using data from the Platypus Genome Project, they began the attempt to discover the proteins and non-peptide compounds found in platypi's venom, which has no antivenom and causes severe pain to humans. They were able to complete the analysis in 18 months, verifying seven snake-like zinc metalloproteinases, seven toxins similar to the alpha-latrotoxins of black widow spiders, six cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISPs) like those found in some lizards and gila monsters, as well as some minor components similar to those of sea anemone venom. In 2007, Belov accepted a lecture position at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney〔 and began to focus on the contagious cancer, which started spreading through the Tasmanian devil population in 1996. She proposed that the problem was that devils lack major histocompatibility complex gene diversity.〔 With a Fellowship provided from the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney,〔 Belov proved her hypothesis, that because devils are isolated, highly inbred populations, and lack diversity their bodies do not mount an immune response to the cancer because the tumor's genetic makeup is so similar to their own. Belov became a full Professor of Comparative Genomics at the University of Sydney and has received an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow award to continue her research in identifying genes, not only for devils and platypi, but for other native Australian species like skinks and wallabies.〔 In 2014, she was awarded the Fenner Medal for research in biology from the Australian Academy of Science. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Katherine Belov」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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