Concordia is pleased to announce that Peter D. Pawelek, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was awarded a grant from the Thalassemia Foundation of Canada to study molecular mechanisms of a virulence factor protein from an opportunistic pathogen that affects thalassemia patients.

Pawelek has just received a two-year grant from the Thalassemia Foundation of Canada to study a receptor protein found on the surface of a particularly lethal bacterial pathogen that afflicts thalassemia patients. This protein can take up the thalassemia drug Desferal when chelated to iron. By ‘hijacking’ iron-bound Desferal, the pathogen can rapidly proliferate in patients being treated with this drug. Pawelek’s group will isolate the receptor and solve its three-dimensional structure in order to understand how it binds Desferal.

Read more on the Media Relations website.

For more on thalassemia, visit the Thalassemia Foundation of Canada website. For more about Peter D. Pawelek, see his faculty profile.

Posted on March 1, 2010