Goodrum laboratory is broadly interested in complex interactions between DNA viruses and their host cells that allow viruses to subvert or co-opt cellular processes for viral objectives. Viruses are at once phenomenal molecular machines capable of overtaking complex organisms and powerful tools for understanding cell biology.
Through co-evolution, herpesviruses have mastered our biology, skillfully manipulating the host to achieve an extraordinary coexistent latent state that enables the virus to persist indefinitely in the immunocompetent host. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the largest, most complex virus known to infect humans and asymptomatically infects most of the population worldwide.
Like all herpesviruses, HCMV establishes a lifelong latent infection, sporadically and subclinically reactivating in the healthy host with life-threatening disease risk in the immunocompromised or immune naive host. HCMV infection or reactivation carries life-threatening human health risks in the context of a congenital infection or inadequate adaptive immune responses, particularly in the context of transplantation.
CMV is also emerging as an important co-factor in aging, cancer, and gastrointestinal disease (e.g., ulcerative colitis). In addition to the risks to human health, HCMV is a powerful tool for understanding biological host process as it has evolved to target or manipulate the most pivotal points in almost any host process.
Our laboratory seeks to define the virus-host interactions important for the virus to “sense” and “respond” to host cues and filter noise in the system to switch between latent and replicative states. This foundational knowledge is key to controlling HCMV pathology and will broadly define strategies by which viruses integrate into host cell biology.