Research

Developing functional genomic tools

Understanding how viral and host factors interact and how perturbations impact infection is the basis for designing efficient antiviral interventions and for deciphering the molecular processes that take place in infected cells. By engineering CMV to express sgRNA libraries directly from the viral genome, we developed a transformative CRISPR-based technology to investigate unaddressed aspects of the complex viral life cycle.

Gene expression in viral infection

Viruses are, by definition, fully dependent on the cellular translation machinery and develop diverse mechanisms to manipulate and co-opt it for their own benefit. Our group has developed approaches such as ribosome profiling and RNA-seq to quantitatively explore how viruses commandeer the translation machinery and how this affects the cell’s ability to respond to infection.

Decoding viral latency

Primary infection with HCMV results in the establishment of a lifelong infection, which is aided by the ability of HCMV to undergo a latent infection. Reactivation from viral latency causes serious disease, underscoring the need to better understand the latency state. We use high throughput methods such as single-cell RNA-seq as well as CRISPR-Cas9 screens to reveal determinants of latent infection and characterize the latent infection state.