Agenda

Joel Baines received a veterinary degree (VMD) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, and a PhD from Cornell University in 1988. After postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Bernard Roizman at the University of Chicago, he became assistant professor at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell in 1993. There, he worked his way up the academic ranks to be named the James Law Professor of Virology in 2006, and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in 2012. In 2014 he was appointed the Kenneth Burns Chair in Veterinary Medicine and Dean of the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. He returned to Cornell in 2021 as the James Law Professor of Virology (emeritus). Throughout his research career he has focused on molecular mechanisms underlying herpesvirus replication. Ongoing studies focus on viral transcription during productive and latent infections.

Patrick S. Moore, MD, MPH is the Pittsburgh Foundation Chair and American Cancer Society (ACS) Professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh. His laboratory works on the interplay between innate immune evasion and carcinogenesis, particularly for Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV or HHV8) and Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV) that he and his wife, Yuan Chang, discovered. This research has been recognized by the 2019 NCI Director's Achievement, 2017 Paul Ehrlich, 2017 Passano, 2003 GM Cancer Research Mott, 1998 Robert Koch, and the 1997 Meyenburg Cancer prizes and awards and they are elected members of the US NAS, AAA&S and other scientific societies. He graduated from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT, received medical and graduate degrees from the University of Utah, Stanford University and University California, Berkeley and trained at the Centers for Disease Control as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. In addition to his work on tumor viruses, he previously worked on meningococcal meningitis epidemics, recognized by the CDC Langmuir Award, and on refugee/displaced person issues during the 1992 Somalian civil war and famine for which he received PHS Unit Commendation, Hazardous Duty, Foreign Duty ribbons.

My research focus is to discover novel mechanisms of viral immune evasion for mainly two reasons: (1) Viruses have to counteract the innate immune response of the host to successfully establish an infection, and by studying this arms race mechanistically, we can potentially contribute to the development of novel or improved therapeutic approaches to cure diseases caused by chronic viral infections. (2) Since viruses have acquired such an extraordinary expertise to counteract the host response, they can guide us to discover novel mechanisms of the innate immune response and deepen our knowledge about the complexity of virus-host interactions. As a PhD student with Thomas Schulz at Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany, I studied the signaling activity of the viral membrane protein K15 of the human herpesvirus Kaposi‘s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), which causes multiple cancers, which improved our understanding of viral manipulation of cellular gene expression. During my postdoc in Hidde Ploegh’s lab at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, USA, I worked in an interdisciplinary team of researchers and discovered that the membrane protein UNC93B is a crucial co-factor of crucial sentinels of our innate immune system, the Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Mice or humans carrying a non-functional version of UNC93B cannot sense certain viruses via TLRs, do not mount a proper antiviral type I interferon response and subsequently develop severe disease after viral infection. Since I became group leader at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Professor at the TU Braunschweig, my team discovered novel evasion mechanisms employed by the herpesviruses KSHV and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) to avoid their clearance by the innate immune system. In addition, the discovery of these viral strategies allowed novel insights into the function of the antiviral host response.

Katya Heldwein earned her Diplom in Chemistry from Lomonosov Moscow State University, where she conducted research on high-temperature superconductors and firefly luciferase. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry at Oregon Health & Sciences University, studying bacterial multidrug-binding proteins, and pursued postdoctoral training at the Harvard Medical School, where she focused on clathrin adaptor proteins and HSV glycoproteins. She is currently a Massachusetts Division of American Cancer Society Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the Tufts University School of Medicine. Her laboratory investigates the mechanisms by which herpesviruses enter and exit host cells, integrating approaches from structural biology, virology, biochemistry, biophysics, and cell biology, to understand how these viruses remodel membranes and hijack intracellular trafficking. Dr. Heldwein’s research has been recognized with numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, the Burroughs Welcome Foundation Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award, and the HHMI Faculty Scholar Award. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2019 and is a co-founder of Thyreos, Inc., a company developing vaccines against neurotropic herpesviruses. For more information about the Heldwein lab, please, visit https://www.heldweinlab.com/.

Beate Sodeik obtained her Diploma in Biology in 1988 (Bonn, Germany) and then trained in immunology as a DAAD Fellow at Columbia University Medical School (USA). In 1989, she joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany) for her PhD research on vaccinia virus assembly. In 1993, she joined the group of Ari Helenius at Yale University (USA) as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow to develop novel cell biology and biochemistry approaches to investigate herpes simplex virus infection. In 1997, she became group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry at Hannover Medical School (Germany). After her "Habilitation", she was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2002 and to Full Professor in 2007 at the Institute of Virology at Hannover Medical School. Since 2016, she has been a member of the German Center of Infection Research (DZIF TTU Infection of the Immunocompromised Host), and since 2019, of the German Excellence Cluster RESIST (Resolving Infection Susceptibility) and She teaches virology, cell biology, and biochemistry for MSc and PhD students of the Hannover Biomedical Research School. In 2001, she founded the study group Cell Biology of the Gesellschaft für Virologie (GfV), and was a member of the GfV Board from 2011 til 2026. She served two terms each on the academic advisory board of the Leibniz Society and the Study Section Virology of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Since April 2026, she has been the deputy speaker of the newly established DFG PhD research training network on the Activation of Cellular anti-Microbial Effectors (ACME).

Dr. Craig McCormick is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Dalhousie University, where he holds a Distinguished Research Professorship in recognition of research achievements. He received a 2019 Rosemary Gill Award for outstanding service to students, and a Faculty of Medicine Award for Excellence in Research Mentorship of Faculty. Together with Dr. Nathalie Grandvaux, he co-founded the Canadian Society for Virology (CSV), which provides ~300 members with access to vibrant symposia and a variety of supports. Dr. McCormick also provided strategic research leadership in the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, co-founding and serving as Director for the Infection, Immunity, Inflammation & Vaccinology (I3V) Wave. He is an expert on host antiviral responses and viral evasion mechanisms, focused on herpesviruses as well as emerging and re-emerging viruses with pandemic potential like influenza A viruses and coronaviruses.

Jens von Einem is a professor at the Institute of Virology at Ulm University Medical Center in Germany. He received his doctoral degree in Virology from the University of Greifswald for his work at the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute on the Isle of Riems. As a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, he continued his PhD research on herpesvirus morphogenesis, pathogenesis, and vaccine candidate development. In 2006, he became a young group leader at the Institute of Virology in Ulm and was appointed as a junior professor in 2011. His lab has been instrumental in developing advanced electron microscopy techniques to study herpesvirus morphogenesis, with a focus on human cytomegalovirus biology. His group is investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the assembly of infectious virus particles to identify critical steps that could serve as targets to limit herpesvirus dissemination.

Trine H. Mogensen obtained her MD from Aarhus University (AU), Denmark in 2002, a PhD degree in 2003, and a DMSc in 2009, including studies in Biochemistry and Medicine in Paris, Descartes University and Necker Medical Faculty, Research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Bryan Williams at the Cleveland Clinic, US. She is specialist doctor in infectious diseases and holds a position as chief physician at the Department of Infectious diseases, Aarhus University Hospital. She became a professor in Infection Immunology at Department of Biomedicine, AU in 2017. Among her scientific activities, THM directs the PASCAL-MID center to develop CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene correction of stem cells for patients with PIDs, coordinates the Horizon Europe consortium UNDINE on the human genetics and immunology of SARS-CoV-2 disease, heads the Inflammation Network at AU, and is member of the Genetics Working Party of the European Society for Immunodeficiency diseases (ESID) and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). The aim of my research is to understand basic mechanisms in infection immunology and immunity relevant to infectious diseases and immunodeficiencies in humans. Through a patient-based translational approach my group aims at delineating the pathogenesis and human genetics and immunity of infectious diseases with particular focus on herpesvirus infections in the central nervous system.

Professional career Since 2018: Head of the Center of Virology, Medical University Vienna 2019: Guest professor at the University of Pavia, Italy 2016-2018: Deputy head of the Center of Virology, Medical University of Vienna Since 2010: Specialist in “Virology” Since 2000: ao Professor of Virology 1994: Venia docendi Since 1992: Specialist in “Hygiene and Microbiology” 1987: Start of education at the Institute of Virology, University of Vienna 1986: Received Doctor of Medicine degree Selection of actual and past national and international positions - Member of the advisory board of the international GfV (Gesellschaft für Virologie) - Executive member of the ÖGHMP - Member of the Austrian “Obersten Sanitätsrats” - 2013-2016: President of the European Society for Clinical Virology (ESCV) - council member of the ESAR (European Society for antiviral research) - 2013-2016: co-opted executive member of the PASCV - 2017-2019 member of the ECCMID program committee - 2001-2011: Vice president of the Austrian AIDS Society Scientific work: Since numerous years leading a research group with primary emphasis on the topics of Transplantation Virology, Neurovirology and antiviral NK-cell response. The main research interests are focussed on the pathogenesis of persistent viral infections, in particular of Herpesviruses, on the interaction between these viruses and the host immune system and on the potential clinical impact of such interactions.

In my laboratory, we investigate the pathways exploited by viruses and parasites to reveal fundamental aspects of cell biology and immunology. My lab is pioneering the use of mouse models of multiple infections to understand the complex interactions that occur during co-infection. We discovered that intestinal parasite infection reactivates latent herpesvirus infections through various mechanisms that depend on the timing of co-infections (Science, 2014; J Virol, 2021; PLOS Path, 2023). These studies are some of the first to demonstrate a direct relationship between coinfection and effective immune responses to viruses. Harnessing the power of viruses to teach us cell biology, we discovered that noroviruses encode a viral mimic of a host death-inducing protein domain to facilitate viral egress (Nature, 2023). This study illuminated a novel viral egress strategy and may reveal a new pathway of programmed cell death. In other studies, we revealed a new mechanism for tuning the cytoplasmic DNAsensing pathway (eLife, 2020) and regulation of virus-induced autophagy (JCI 2024). My lab currently trains three graduate students, one postdoctoral fellow, and three technical staff at various levels. I am an active member of both the Immunology and Molecular Microbiology Graduate Programs at UT Southwestern. Beginning in Fall 2026, I will be the Director of the Immunology Graduate Program at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Gack is the Arthur and Marylin Levitt Endowed Chair and Scientific Director of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research and Innovation Center. She did her PhD training in virology at Harvard Medical School as part of a collaborative graduate program between Harvard and the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Dr. Gack is interested in understanding how the intricate interplay between viruses and the innate and intrinsic immune response impacts the outcome of viral infection and disease. A major focus of her research is the investigation of innate sensing pathways, antiviral cytokine responses, and autophagy as well as viral escape thereof. Another long-term goal of her research is to determine the molecular mechanisms by which viral pathogens usurp human enzymes for their efficient replication. Her work has been recognized by several awards including the GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists, the Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award from the American Society for Virology, the Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award of the American Society for Microbiology, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science and a NIH’s Director Pioneer Award.

John Karijolich, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology (PMI) and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. His research program focuses on RNA biology and the molecular mechanisms by which RNA processing pathways shape antiviral immunity and host–virus interactions. Dr. Karijolich received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester under the mentorship of Dr. Yi-Tao Yu, where he made the seminal discovery that the RNA modification pseudouridine can be installed in messenger RNA and demonstrated that this modification alters translational accuracy. He subsequently pursued postdoctoral training in chromatin structure and co-transcriptional RNA processing at Rutgers University before joining the laboratory of Dr. Britt Glaunsinger at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he uncovered unexpected roles for noncoding retrotransposon RNAs during gammaherpesvirus infection, developed RNA-sequencing approaches to study repetitive RNAs, and identified the first pseudouridylation site within the transcriptional regulatory noncoding RNA 7SK. Dr. Karijolich established his laboratory at Vanderbilt in 2016. His group investigates RNA biology and the fundamental gene regulatory mechanisms that govern gene expression, cellular function, and host–virus interactions. Through these studies, his laboratory seeks to uncover fundamental mechanisms linking RNA biology to antiviral defense and immune regulation.

Yasushi Kawaguchi is Professor at the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo (IMSUT), where he currently serves as Vice Dean. He is also Deputy Director of the University of Tokyo Pandemic Preparedness Infection and Advanced Research (UTOPIA) Center. In addition, he serves as Director of the International Research Center for Infectious Diseases and Director of the Research Center for Asian Infectious Diseases at IMSUT. He is President of the Japanese Society for Virology. Dr. Kawaguchi received his PhD from the University of Tokyo and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago under the mentorship of Dr. Bernard Roizman. He subsequently held faculty positions at Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Nagoya University before joining IMSUT. For more than three decades, his research has focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying herpesvirus replication and pathogenesis.

Sarah Dremel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia, where her research group investigates how herpesvirus infection reshapes the RNA landscape. She earned her PhD studying HSV-1 in the laboratory of Neal DeLuca at the University of Pittsburgh, somehow managing to escape without ever performing a cesium chloride prep. A lifelong herpes virologist, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship focused on KSHV at the National Cancer Institute in the Ziegelbauer laboratory. Sarah established her independent laboratory at the University of Virginia in 2024. Her research integrates molecular virology with high-throughput sequencing and custom bioinformatic pipelines to generate an unbiased, genome-wide view of virus-induced changes. Ongoing work centers on (i) RNA damage and repair and (ii) viral hijacking of the RNA polymerase III machinery.

Meaghan Hancock is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph. She obtained her PhD at the University of Alberta where she worked with Dr. Jim Smiley studying the role of VP16 and ICP0 in overcoming innate immunity to herpesvirus infections. During her post-doctoral work at Oregon Health and Science University with Dr. Jay Nelson, Meaghan devoted her expertise to two different areas of research: the first is the role of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) microRNAs (miRNAs) and proteins in the regulation of lytic replication and latent infection in CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells and the second is the use of CMV as a vaccine vector. Meaghan's work has identified viral miRNA functions in lytic infection, latency and reactivation as well as hematopoietic cell homeostasis. Meaghan's long-standing interest in understanding how herpesviruses regulate persistent infection has lead to studies investigating the roles of HCMV proteins such as UL22A, US28, UL78, UL7, UL8 and UL138 during latent infection in collaboration with leaders in the herpesvirus field. Meaghan welcomes inquiries from fellow virologists who are interested in collaborations or joining the growing team at the University of Guelph!

Benedikt Kaufer is a professor and the director of the Institute for Virology at the Freie Universität Berlin. He received his Bachelor of Science at the Technical University of Munich (2005) and his PhD at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Cornell University (2010). In 2010 he established his own laboratory at the Institute for Virology of the Freie Universität Berlin and was appointed as an assistant professor for “molecular tumor virology” in 2011. In 2017, he obtained a Lichtenberg professorship funded by the Volkswagen foundation. The Kaufer laboratory investigates various aspects of herpesvirus biology including pathogenesis, latency, virus integration and virus-induced tumorigenesis. The team uncovered various mechanisms involved in Marek’s disease virus pathogenesis and lymphomagenesis, and discovered a mechanism that allows certain herpesviruses to integrate their genome into host telomeres during latency. For his work, he received a number of awards including the “Robert Koch Post-doctoral Award”, the “Young Investigator Award” of the German Veterinary Society (DVG) and the “Loeffler-Frosch-Award” of the German Society for Virology (GfV). His research has been funded by various agencies including the German Research Foundation (DFG), European Research council (ERC) and the NIH.

Christian Münz has been trained in immunology at the German Cancer Research Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, the University of Tübingen, Germany, and the Rockefeller University in New York, USA. He became Assistant Professor and Head of Laboratory at the Rockefeller University in 2003. In 2008 he was recruited as Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology to the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and became Full Professor in 2015. Since 2010 he is also Visiting Professor at the Imperial College in London, UK. In 2006 he received the Burroughs Welcome Fund Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award for his studies on antigen processing via macroautophagy, and in 2012 the Sobek Award for his studies on the association of Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infection with multiple sclerosis (MS). He is an expert in EBV specific immune control and humanized mice as preclinical models for human oncogenic gamma-herpesvirus infections, and has published more than 300 peer reviewed papers and review articles on these topics.

Dr. Paul D. Ling (Baylor College of Medicine) has spent over two decades studying herpesvirus biology, with a particular focus on Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV), the leading infectious cause of death in young Asian elephants. In close partnership with the Houston Zoo, Dr. Ling established a comprehensive “Bench to Barn” framework that bridges molecular virology, immunology, wildlife conservation, and real time veterinary care. His group developed the first broadly adopted qPCR diagnostic assays for EEHV, sequenced multiple viral genomes, created essential immunological tools to study elephant antiviral responses, and helped shape evidence based clinical protocols now used internationally. Most recently, Dr. Ling’s team launched the first prototype mRNA vaccine trials targeting EEHV1A, the subtype responsible for most fatal infections. This milestone marks a significant step toward a protective vaccine that could reduce mortality in managed elephant populations and ultimately support recovery efforts in the wild. Dr. Ling’s work exemplifies how fundamental virology can drive meaningful impact far beyond the lab, advancing the protection of one of Earth’s most iconic and vulnerable species.

Coming Soon!

Thomas Stamminger is Chair of Virology and Director of the Institute for Virology at Ulm University Medical Center (Ulm, Germany). Previously, he was Associate Professor at the Institute of Clinical and Molecular Virology in Erlangen (Germany). Presently, he serves as head of the National Cytomegalovirus Consultant Laboratory at the Robert Koch Institute and as Secretary General of the European Society for Virology. The Stamminger lab investigates human cytomegalovirus pathogenesis and virus-host interactions. Recent studies focus on the interplay between viral infection and intrinsic host immunity to understand epigenetic silencing mechanisms and antagonizing viral factors.

Italo Tempera is a Professor at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, where his research focuses on virology and epigenetics, with particular emphasis on gamma-herpesviruses and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). He received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2007 and completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Lieberman at The Wistar Institute, where he studied how chromatin-organizing proteins regulate viral gene expression. In 2012, he established his independent laboratory at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research at the Temple University School of Medicine, continuing his work on the epigenetic control of viral latency. He returned to The Wistar Institute as faculty in 2020, where his laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms governing three-dimensional viral genome organization and the epigenetic and metabolic pathways that regulate host–virus interactions and cellular transformation. Through integrative multi-omics and functional genomics approaches, his work has advanced our understanding of how chromatin architecture and nuclear organization shape viral persistence and oncogenesis.

Christine O’Connor, PhD is an Associate Staff in Microbial Sciences at Cleveland Clinic Research and Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Virginia, where she studied Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV8). She continued herpesvirus research, completing two post-doctoral fellowships at Princeton University and Cleveland Clinic, focusing on cytomegalovirus (CMV)-encoded GPCRs and viral/host factors that impact latency and reactivation. Work in the O’Connor Lab is aimed at understanding the relationship between CMV and its host. Her lab is particularly interested in the mechanisms underlying CMV latency and reactivation, with a focus on the contributions of the viral-encoded GPCRs to these phases of infection.

Felicia Goodrum is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Goodrum’s work is focused on virus-host interactions and particularly those important for human cytomegalovirus to establish life-long latent infections and to make the decision to reactivate a program of replication. Dr. Goodrum’s work has been recognized through Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fellowships, the Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, Kavli Young Investigators Award, the Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers, and a National Institutes of Health MERIT award. She is past-President of the American Society for Virology and co-Editor in Chief for Journal of Virology. Dr. Goodrum is an active advocate for science, virology, and evidence-based decision making.

Angus Wilson is an Associate Professor at the New York University School of Medicine. He received his B.Sc. in Genetics from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from King’s College London. As a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Fellow with Winship Herr at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory he used POU-homeodomain proteins to explore mechanisms of promoter selectivity of transcription factors. This work culminated in the purification and gene cloning of host cell factor 1 (HCF-1), an obligate partner of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) trans-activator VP16. As a heterodimer composed of two subunits derived from the same large precursor, HCF-1 serves as an organizing subunit of chromatin-modifying complexes important for cell cycle regulation, pluripotency, and development. Studies by the late Tom Kristie and others showed how HCF-1 recruitment maintains viral immediate-early genes in transcriptionally permissive euchromatin. At NYU, Angus co-directs a joint lab with Professor Ian Mohr studying transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of gene expression through the prism of herpesvirus infection. In 2010 they published the first of a series of impactful studies on the molecular basis of HSV-1 latency and reactivation in primary neurons. These works revealed the direct involvement of conserved pathways responsible for neuronal homeostasis in response to physiological, genomic, and epi-transcriptomic insults, providing a link between the known triggers of reactivation and the molecules controlling viral gene transcription. Current projects in the Mohr/Wilson Lab focus on RNA modifications, mRNA localization, and ribosome dynamics as determinants of herpesvirus productive replication and latency.

Yoshi Izumiya is a Japanese scientist and a Professor at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a PhD in Veterinary Microbiology, where he worked on the oncogenic mechanisms of Marek's disease virus under the supervision of Dr. Takeshi Mikami. He did postdoctoral work with Dr. Hsing-Jien Kung at the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. Since then, he has enjoyed studying oncogenic herpesviruses at UC Davis. He recently served as a director of the Viral and Pathogen-associated Malignancy program at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. His laboratory focused on developing therapeutics for KSHV-associated diseases by leveraging 25+ years of research on KSHV gene regulation. He also began working on the chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6. Other interests include developing mathematical models of dynamic protein-protein interactions and generating cancer therapeutics through studies on viral-host protein interactions. He is also a founder of the non-profit international KSHV association and VGN Bio, Inc.

Dr. Renfeng Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in Analytical Chemistry from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and his Ph.D. in Biology from Tsinghua University in 2008 under the mentorship of Dr. Sen-Fang Sui. He pursued postdoctoral training in Virology with Dr. Diane Hayward at Johns Hopkins University, focusing on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) biology, and received additional NIH K99-supported advanced training in quantitative proteomics in Dr. Akhilesh Pandey’s laboratory. For more than eighteen years, Dr. Li has been dedicated to EBV research, integrating biochemical, proteomic, and systems-level approaches to dissect virus-host interactions and epigenetic regulation of viral latency and reactivation. After serving on the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University from 2014 to 2022, he joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2023. The Li lab focuses on elucidating the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms that control EBV latency and lytic reactivation, with the overarching goal of uncovering mechanistic vulnerabilities that can be targeted to develop therapies for EBV-associated malignancies.

Päivi Ojala is Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at Medicum, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, and a member of the Translational Cancer Medicine Research Program within the university’s Research Programs Unit. From 2013 to 2021, she served as Chair of Viral Tumorigenesis at Imperial College London, where she continues as a visiting professor. She earned her PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Helsinki in 1993 and completed postdoctoral training at Yale School of Medicine (1995–97) and the University of Helsinki (1997–2001). Professor Ojala has made major contributions to the study of Kaposi’s Sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) and its mechanisms of tumorigenesis. Her research also investigates how the lymphatic endothelial microenvironment influences cancer cell metastasis and explores the development of CAR T‑cell therapies. Her group has extensive expertise in organotypic 3D co‑culture models, high‑content cell‑based screening, protein kinase signaling, and genomic viral technologies. Her work has demonstrated that restoring p53 function with small‑molecule inhibitors represents a promising therapeutic strategy for KSHV‑induced lymphomas. She has also identified a developmental transcription factor as a key regulator of viral persistence and a potential therapeutic target. Her group showed that KSHV infection reprograms lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) into a more invasive mesenchymal‑like state, revealing new insights into viral manipulation of endothelial identity.

Rosemary Rochford’s research program has focused extensively on the interplay between infectious diseases and cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Over two decades, her work has centered on the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), malaria, and related viral co-infections in the development of pediatric cancers, particularly Burkitt lymphoma. Rochford expanded her research to another oncogenic herpesviruses, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Her work in Kenya and Uganda has examined environmental and immunologic determinants of KSHV transmission, viral shedding, and seroconversion in children, as well as the impact of malaria and maternal HIV infection on early viral acquisition. These studies have contributed to understanding infection-driven cancer risks in African populations. Rochford has also made important mechanistic contributions to the field, including identifying CD21 as a receptor for EBV entry into T cells and demonstrating how EBV type 2 infects T cells and promotes B-cell lymphomagenesis in experimental models. Her group provided a link between EBV reactivation and malaria showing that heme can induce plasma cell differentiation and lytic reactivation. Her laboratory has investigated activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) expression, B-cell differentiation, antibody decay in infancy, and immune modulation during malaria infection, linking immunologic dysregulation to viral persistence and cancer susceptibility. In addition, Collectively, her sustained collaborative work in western Kenya and Uganda has helped define the biological and epidemiological pathways connecting EBV, KSHV, and malaria with infection-associated malignancies.

Karen Mossman, Ph.D., obtained her HonBSc in Molecular Biology & Genetics at the University of Guelph (1992) and her PhD (1996) and PDF (2001) in Biochemistry and Molecular Virology, respectively, at the University of Alberta. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Medicine who has served as Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences (2013-2017), Associate Vice President Research (2017-2018) and Vice President Research (2018-2024) at McMaster University, Canada. Dr. Mossman is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the American Association of Microbiology, was recognized by the Women’s Executive Network as a Top 100 – Canada’s Most Powerful Women and received the 2024 Honorary Lifetime Membership Award from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society. Dr. Mossman has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has contributed as author and editor to numerous books, including virology textbooks. Dr. Mossman joined McMaster University in 2001, with a research focus on understanding the interactions between viruses and their hosts, both in normal healthy cells and in cancer cells, with the goal of developing novel therapy approaches for emerging viral infections and cancer. She is currently working with industry to develop Bovine herpesvirus type I as a clinical oncolytic viral cancer immunotherapy. At the start of the pandemic, her group helped isolate SARS-CoV-2 from Canadian patients which enabled COVID-related studies across the country. To better understand future pandemics, Dr. Mossman’s lab studies bats and why bats are able to host a wide variety of viruses without getting sick.

Noam received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied viral immune evasion and the functions of virally encoded miRNAs. She conducted her postdoctoral training with Jonathan Weissman at UCSF, pioneering the use of ribosome profiling to define the coding capacity of viruses. Since 2014, she has been a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her research focuses on deciphering the molecular strategies herpesviruses use to regulate gene expression, establish latency, and reprogram host cellular pathways during infection.