Craig Brunetti

The study of viral immune modulation strategies has increased our understanding of the diverse array of mechanisms that viruses use to circumvent the host immune response as well as providing a greater understanding of host immune function.  In particular, the large DNA viruses, such as the Herpesviridae and Poxviridae families encode an array of viral proteins that subvert immune system function at many different levels.  Although many immune evasion genes have been identified, the cellular targets of these virulence factors are often specific to a particular virus or viral family.  Our laboratory is using a scientifically unexploited family of large DNA viruses, the Iridoviridae, to identify new viral immune evasion strategies.  Identifying viral immune evasion genes from the Iridoviridae family will help identify new cellular anti-viral pathways that are not targeted by other viral families as well as providing greater insight into the function of previously identified cellular anti-viral responses.