Major Research Interest:
Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes infectious mononucleosis and plays an important role in the development of several B cell and epithelial cell cancers. It has a lipid envelope containing many membrane proteins, and its entry into cells and spread to adjacent cells require membrane fusion. Transient coexpression of EBV membrane proteins gB, gH and gL causes cell fusion in the absence of infection, in a process that in many respects mimics fusion between the virus and cell membranes. Three-dimensional structures are known for gB and the gH/gL complex, and there is limited information from mutagenesis studies about which residues lie within functionally important parts of the proteins. The activity of gB in fusion is generally believed to be triggered by an interaction with gH/gL, but the location of the binding sites on either protein is not yet clear. Determination of the binding site on gB may facilitate the design of drugs able to interfere with the interaction and thus block membrane fusion and virus entry into cells.
