Felicia Goodrum
Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine | Member of the Graduate Faculty | Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology | Professor, BIO5 Institute | Interim Associate Department Head, Immunobiology | Professor, Immunobiology | Professor, Cancer Biology - GIDP | Professor, Genetics - GIDP
About
Viruses cause at least 10-20% of all cancers. Yet, viruses have also been powerful tools for the discovery of oncogenes, tumor suppressors and basic cellular processes. Herpesviruses are no exception. Our laboratory focusses on the beta-herpesvirus, human cytomegalovirus or CMV. CMV latently infects up to 99% of the population worldwide. CMV can reactivate to cause life-threatening disease in leukemia and lymphoma patients undergoing stem cell transplantation. While CMV is not known to cause cancer, oncomodulatory properties have emerged. Our research focuses on understanding how CMV modulates host trafficking and receptor tyrosine kinase signaling (e.g., EGFR) and DNA damage repair pathways and the impact of this viral regulation on host cell biology and the maintenance of latency or reactivation from latency.
Research Area
- Many viruses asymptomatically co-exist within the human host. Understanding the mechanisms by which these viruses persist—in the absence of overt disease—is the major focus of our lab. These stealthy viruses are also powerful tools for probing and understanding cell biology important to signaling, immune evasion, cell survival, and differentiation. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a beta-herpesviruses that persists in the majority of the world’s population by establishing a latent infection. Latency is defined as a reversibly quiescent state during which viral gene expression and replication is highly restricted. We use CMV as a model for defining and understanding the interactions between viruses and their hosts that allow for the entry into and exit from latent states. Understanding latency and viral persistence is critical to developing novel antiviral therapies to control persistence and its consequences in at-risk individuals, such as stem cell and organ transplant recipients.
Molecular Virology
Scientific Writing
Microbes and Immunity
Scientific Writing and Research Integrity
Scientific Grantsmanship