The major focus of the lab has been to understand how oncoproteins of adenovirus target and dysregulate cellular processes to promote virus replication and persistence. These studies led to the discovery that the stage of the cell cycle at the time of infection imposes a restriction on virus replication. Related work has revealed interactions among the E4 and E1B oncoproteins in virus replication with implications for our understanding of this ubiquitous human pathogen as well as for the use of adenovirus as a vaccine platform, a vector for gene therapy, an agent for tumor therapy, and for the efficient production of adeno-associated viral vectors.
Another line of study, seeking to identify cellular factors targeted by essential adenovirus oncoproteins, has identified RUNX1 as a targeted cellular gene. This gene is the most frequently disrupted gene in acute childhood leukemia. This line of study has pointed to the possibility that an important regulator of immune and bone cell development is an important cellular target for adenovirus with potentially far-reaching implications for this apparently mild human pathogen.
A third line of study in collaboration with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine uses microphysiological models of human organs such as the lung and the skin in order to understand early cellular responses to pathogenic human viruses that can predict the course of viral disease and the trajectory of the adaptive immune response to virus infection.