PML: Endemic Viruses and Lethal Brain Disease

          The majority of our research efforts are focused on studying the human polyomavirus, JCPyV.  JCPyV infects greater than 60% of the human population worldwide. The virus establishes life-long persistent infection in the kidney and is excreted in the urine. In immunosuppressed patients or in patients being treated with immunomodulatory drugs JCPyV spreads to the central nervous system (CNS) where it infects oligodendrocytes causing a fatal demyelinating disease known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). 

          Our major goals are to understand the mechanisms of persistence, reactivation, and virus tropism that leads to the development of PML. 

          Our interest in the early events that mediate the infection of cells include but are not limited to studies of virus-host cell receptor interactions, endocytic trafficking of virus from the plasma membrane to the nucleus, and virus induced membrane signaling. Our efforts are largely but not exclusively focused on identifying receptor-dependent and receptor-independent mechanisms of infection, identifying early biomarkers of disease, and developing strategies to prevent or treat PML.

          We have a general interest in studying events that contribute to viral tropism and regulate the balance between infection and resistance. We also focus our efforts at screening lead compounds that block any of these key steps in the viral life cycle as potential therapies to treat or prevent disease caused by JCPyV and BKPyV. We approach these problems using state-of-the-art techniques in cell and molecular biology and genetics.