Researcher

Career Summary

Our research has focused on the biology of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and EBV-induced B-cell lymphoproliferation in immunocompromised patients. Our laboratory was the first to demonstrate a direct correlation between EB viral load and development of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). This finding has had an important impact on the diagnosis/prognosis and pre-emptive management of PTLD. A follow-up study demonstrated that a second marker can be used in conjunction with EB viral load to better define patients at high risk for PTLD. More recently, our laboratory has developed a deoxyribozyme antiviral with catalytic activity against the hepatitis C virus (HCV). This deoxyribozyme was shown to cleave HCV RNA efficiently in cells transfected with the full-length HCV genome. In vivo collaborative studies using an infectious mouse model are now in progress to investigate the potential clinical application of our deoxyribozyme.