Education:
     Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 1986
     B.A. University of Delaware, 1979

Research Interests:
     Herpesviruses are responsible for both substantial human suffering and economic
     loss. Most  members of this class of virus can cause either a lytic or latent infection
     in host cells. A lytic infection results in death of the host cell while in a latent
     infection, the herpesvirus genome is maintained within the cell in an intact form.
     Latently infected cells can be stimulated to reactivate the virus by a variety of means
     and reactivation yields a release of virus particles. In some cases, latent infection
     also appears to be responsible for transformation of the host cell to a cancer cell. Our
     laboratory works on Marek's disease virus (MDV), a herpesvirus that causes T-cell
     lymphomas in chickens and Herpesvirus of Turkey (HVT), which can confer
     resistance to Marek's disease in chickens. Two major projects are ongoing in the
     laboratory.

     Herpesvirus of Turkey (HVT):  To increase our understanding of HVT, we
     have launched a genomics project using both DNA sequencing and DNA array
     analysis.  We are completing the complete sequence of the HVT genome
     (~140,000 nucleotides).  In addition, we are generating DNA arrays containing
     all open reading frames of HVT to better understand the dynamics of gene
     regulation of herpesviruses.  In addition, with Dr. Joan Burnside and Dr. Robin
     Morgan,  we are creating DNA arrays containing several thousand avian genes
     to examine host cell responses to infection with HVT.   The long term goal of
     these studies is to better understand how herpesviruses exploit host cells and
     how the host combats infection.

    Marek's Disease Virus (MDV):  To better understand how herpesviruses
    exploit the host cell, we are using tagged  MDV proteins to identify cellular
    compartments used by virus proteins.   The approach is to create fusion
    proteins between viral gene products and green fluorescent protein (GFP).  The
    fusion products allow us to monitor the location of virus protein within live cells
    by confocal microscopy.