The Role That Genetics Plays In Valley Fever

Dr. John Galgiani, director of the University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence and professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious diseases is doing research under a $2.27 million dollar grant to study the immuno-genetic reasons why some people fall deathly ill after contracting Valley Fever, while others remain relatively unaffected. Dr. Yves Lussier, previous associate director of the BIO5 Institute, and associate vice president and director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics at the UA Health Science, is a co-investigator on the study specializing in big data and deciphering DNA sequences. Together they’ve determined that a gene mutation could be the reason why some are susceptible to fatal forms of Valley Fever, a novel discovery that will inform the creation of a preventative vaccine.