• Primary Faculty Profiles
• Bankert, Richard, Ph.D., V.M.D., Professor
• Bianco, Piero, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Campagnari, Anthony, Ph.D., Professor
• Collins, Arlene, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Connell, Terry, Ph.D., Professor
• Egilmez, Nejat, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Hakansson, Anders, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Hay, John, Ph.D., Professor
• Jacobs, Amy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Melendy, Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Panepinto, John, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Read, Laurie, Ph.D., Professor
• Russell, Michael, Ph.D., Professor
• Ruyechan, William, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman
• Thacore, Harshad, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Williams, Noreen, Ph.D., Professor
• Adjunct Faculty Profiles
• Departmental Publications
• Career Opportunities
• The Witebsky Center
• Seminars

Faculty and Research

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Education:

1967 - 1968, Postdoc, Columbia University, New York, NY
1966, Ph.D., University of Glasgow, Scotland
1963, Bachelor of Science, University of Glasgow, Scotland

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Research Interests:

I have worked on the molecular genetics of human viral infections for all of my career. I started with herpes simplex viruses and, when I moved to the US in the late 70s, I developed an interest in varicella zoster virus (VZV; also a herpes virus). I continue to work on VZV. In the early 80s, I started a separate series of projects on hemorrhagic fever viruses, which have been a second focus on and off since then. My latest interests are in epidemiology and epizootiology, in addition to molecular genetics.

Hemorrhagic fever viruses:  The early work was with hantaviruses, a genus within the bunyavirus family, which has small RNA genomes (4 proteins). These viruses cause variably fatal (strain-dependent) disease (hemorrhagic fever or pulmonary disease) in humans, through direct spread from small mammals. We developed systems for the expression of viral proteins, and examined the pathogenesis of the virus in infected human cells. This work led to a hypothesis for the hemorrhagic nature of the disease. Recent work with hantaviruses has focused on investigation of an interferon blocking function, on development of novel antiviral agents and on the epidemiology of infections in Siberia and central Asia. A second virus of interest to my lab is Crimean –Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). This is also a bunyavirus, causing a highly fatal disease widespread in many parts of the world. We have studied this virus infection in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and identified cohorts of infected individuals in different parts of these countries, as well as identifying rodent reserviors.
Tick-borne encephalitis viruses:   CCHFV is spread by ixodid ticks from animal reservoirs to humans. A second tick-borne virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a flavivirus (another small RNA virus), spread by different members of the ixodid family from CCHFV. TBE is a potentially fatal disease in older individuals. We have detected virus in ticks from northern and southern Kazakhstan, and found seroconversion in a substantial percentage of human patients in northeastern and south central Kazakhstan. We are currently carrying out genomic analyses of extracts from ticks in several parts of central Asia.
Varicella zoster virus:  For many years, Dr. William Ruyechan and I have collaborated on the molecular genetics of VZV (a large DNA virus). The large majority of this work is now carried out in his laboratory, and you should refer to his profile for details.

Funding for these projects comes currently from the National Institutes of Health and the US Defense Dept.

Relevant references:

Schmaljohn, C.S., Jennings, G.B, Hay, J. and Dalrymple, J.M. Coding strategy of the S genome segment of hantaan virus. Virology, 155, 633-643, 1986.

Pensiero, M.N., Sharefkin, J., Dieffenbach, C. and Hay, J. Hantaan virus infection of human endothelial cells. J. Virol., 66, 5929-5963, 1992.

Arvin, A., Sharp, M., Moir, M., Kinchington, P., Sadeghi-Zadeh, M., Ruyechan, W. and Hay, J. Memory cytotoxic T-cell responses to viral tegument and regulatory proteins encoded by ORFs 4, 10, 29 and 62 of VZV. Viral Immunol. 15, 507-516, 2002.

Hay, J and Ruyechan, WT. Alphaherpesvirus DNA replication. In “Human Herpesviruses” Cambridge University Press. 2006

Cilloniz, C., Jackson, W., Grose, C., Czechowski, D., Hay, J., Ruyechan, WT. The VZV ORF9 protein interacts with the IE62 major VZV transactivator.  J. Virol., 81, 761-774, 2007