Research
Virus Assembly & Structure With our expertise in retrovirus assembly and structure, we work to determine how to disrupt these elements with the goal of developing new antivirals. Previously, we demonstrated that the small cellular molecule IP6 is essential for the assembly and maturation of HIV-1, the causative agent of AIDS. This observation led to the development of new tools to study the assembly process of the virus. To this end, we are actively working to describe how compounds that inhibit HIV assembly, maturation, and infectivity specifically interact with and effectively kill the virus. We are applying many of the tools developed for the study of retrovirus structure and assembly to paramyxoviruses, including the emerging zoonotic virus, Nipah Virus (NiV). With a high mortality rate and transmissibility between animals and humans, NiV represents a virus of significant concern. We are working to determine the structures and arrangement of NiV proteins in virus particles to better understand the mechanisms of a) virus assembly and release and b) virus-mediated fusion.