Interested in becoming a benefactor of the Mura Lab? We work in the area of basic (versus applied) biological research, meaning that your financial investment would be a fruitful and long-term one — today's "basic research" discoveries often become the foundation for many of tomorrow's cures, drugs, and other treatments. The substantial public health relevance of our work stems from the fact that our research directions and model systems (from the Sm protein family) are deeply linked to several human diseases and maladies, including the following:

• Human diseases — Sm proteins are auto-antigens in autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid fever; the Sm family also includes a set of cancer-associated Sm proteins ('CaSm').
• Infectious diseases — Sm proteins are intimately involved in quorum sensing, biofilms, and bacterial pathogenesis.

Our scientific discoveries, current activities, and personnel are possible only because of funding. Therefore, please do not hesitate to contact us (seemura@gmail.com, cmura@virginia.edu) if you are potentially interested in supporting our research program via financial donations. Alternatively, the following PayPal button provides a simple & secure means for direct donation of any amount, using either a credit card or PayPal account:
It is our policy that every philanthropic donation (from 1¢ →) is acknowledged in print, in the scientific publications that report our results and findings (which we make freely available to the scientific community); in addition, note that such gifts are tax-deductible.