Project Outline: We are currently conducting experiments to gain an initial understanding of smallpox infection and the host response to smallpox on a molecular, cellular and organismal level. We are studying the program of viral gene expression and the host immune response using specialized human-poxviral cDNA microarrays. We are using non-human primate models of smallpox and monkeypox infections and human studies of vaccinia vaccination as well as in vitro models of poxviral infection to investigate virus-host interactions. In addition, we are comparing the host immune response to smallpox to the gene expression responses to non-human primate models of Ebola and anthrax infection in order to elucidate conserved, viral-specific, and pathogen-specific responses
Collaborators:
Peter Jarhling, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
Jim LeDuc, Centers for Disease Control
Jai Lingappa, Centers for Disease Control