Weitzman Lab

 

Our lab studies the interactions between viruses and their host cells. Viruses try to hijack cellular machinery to aid their own replication, but the host cell often responds with defense systems that can create obstacles for the virus. Watching these battles unfold has contributed significantly to our understanding of fundamental cellular mechanisms and has established viruses as powerful model systems to study cell biology.

 

We have a particular interest in the interactions between viruses and the DNA repair pathways of the host cell. Cells have complex machineries in place to monitor and repair damage to their own genomes. We recently discovered that the cell often recognizes the foreign viral genome as damaged DNA. This results in the cell mounting a cascade of signaling events in an attempt to “repair” the viral DNA. This can have a deleterious outcome for some viruses while others can counterattack by dismantling the cellular DNA repair machinery or even exploiting it to aid their own replication. Knowledge from viral systems can also be harnessed to alter the genetic makeup of cells.

 

Viral vectors have recently become a popular choice for gene therapy applications. These vectors take advantage of the innate ability of viruses to efficiently transfer their genetic material into the nucleus of target cells. We believe that a thorough understanding of the complexities of the virus-host interaction is necessary for the rational design of novel gene therapy vectors. Our lab primarily studies the basic biology of three DNA viruses which are commonly used gene therapy vectors: Adenovirus, Adeno-Assosciated Virus and Herpes Simplex Virus.