CORONAVIRUS UPDATES
Find information and resources about the Research Institute's COVID-19 response
Find information and resources about the Research Institute's COVID-19 response
The Weitzman Lab investigates how viruses create conditions conducive to their reproduction by shaping host cell environments, particularly with regards to genome interactions. The lab discovered cellular antiviral defenses, and identified viral strategies to manipulate these host processes. The lab’s work addresses the dynamic interactions between viruses and host cells when their genomes are in conflict.
The confrontation between viral and host genomes provides a battleground that provides lessons in genome protection, and which will help guide therapeutic strategies to fight infection and cancer. The pathways illuminated are key to combatting viral infection, provide insights into fundamental processes that maintain genome instability, and have implications for developing viral vectors for gene therapy.
The Weitzman Lab investigates the interplay between viral genetic material and host defense strategies. The lab team has used proteomic approaches to probe the interactions taking place on viral and cellular genomes during infection, and have uncovered ways that viruses manipulate chromatin and DNA damage responses as they take control of cellular processes.
Co-Director, Division of Protective Immunity
Dr. Weitzman's research program aims to understand host responses to virus infection, and the cellular environment encountered and manipulated by viruses. He studies multiple viruses in an integrated experimental approach that combines biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and cell biology.