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		Search Text: Home/< Back ToThe Science/Host-Pathogen Dynamics
  Host-Pathogen Dynamics
    Using cutting edge imaging and spectroscopic technologies combined with novel lipidomic and proteomic approaches, investigations in the Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Dynamics, led by Dr. Nihal Altan-Bonnet, have been at the forefront of understanding the virus-host interface, revealing novel replication and transmission mechanisms shared by many different human viruses.
    On This Page
    
          Nihal Altan-Bonnet
  Nihal Altan-Bonnet, Ph.D.
          Senior Investigator
          Email
      Meet the Team
            Contact us
  Senior Investigator Research Interests
            
  Research Interests
              Dr. Nihal Altan-Bonnet heads the Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Dynamics at the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Her lab is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of cell biologists, virologists, environmental engineers, and computational biologists who apply their talents to understand how viruses transmit themselves effectively among hosts and establish successful infections. Dr. Altan-Bonnet and her team have made groundbreaking discoveries that include:Discovering that PI4P lipids panvirally critical for infection by RNA viruses (Hsu et al., Cell 2010)Discovering a novel highly virulent viral infectious unit where viruses are transmitted en bloc inside extracellular vesicles (Chen et al., Cell 2015; Santiana et al., Cell Host and Microbe 2018).Discovering SARS-CoV2 and other coronaviruses use the unusual lysosomal exocytotic pathway to exit cells, disrupt antigen presentation and evade immune defenses (Ghosh et al., Cell 2020).Discovering that enteric viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and astrovirus also replicate in salivary glands and transmit through saliva (Ghosh et al., Nature 2022)
  Images






          coronaviruses get out of cells using lysosomes
      
        Click the image to expand
    Host-Pathogen Dynamics Images


        
            How coronaviruses get out of cells using lysosomes (Ghosh et al., Cell 2020)


                      Electron micrograph of SARS-COV2 particles inside lysosomes
      
        Click the image to expand
    Host-Pathogen Dynamics Images


        
            Electron micrograph of SARS-COV2 particles inside lysosomes


                      viruses travel in clusters inside extracellular vesicles
      
        Click the image to expand
    Host-Pathogen Dynamics Images


        
            A new form of viral transmission: viruses travel in clusters inside extracellular vesicles ( Santiana et al., Cell Host and Microbe 2018)


                      Host lipids PI4P, cholesterol are hijacked by RNA viruses to facilitate their replication
      
        Click the image to expand
    Host-Pathogen Dynamics Images


        
            Host lipids PI4P, cholesterol are hijacked by RNA viruses to facilitate their replication ( Altan-Bonnet., Trends in Cell Biology 2016)
      coronaviruses get out of cells using lysosomes


                      
Electron micrograph of SARS-COV2 particles inside lysosomes


                      
viruses travel in clusters inside extracellular vesicles


                      
Host lipids PI4P, cholesterol are hijacked by RNA viruses to facilitate their replication
Featured Publications
                β-Coronaviruses Use Lysosomes for Egress Instead of the Biosynthetic Secretory Pathway
            Authors:Ghosh S, Dellibovi-Ragheb TA, Kerviel A, Pak E, Qiu Q, Fisher M, Takvorian PM, Bleck C, Hsu VW, Fehr AR, Perlman S, Achar SR, Straus MR, Whittaker GR, de Haan CAM, Kehrl J, Altan-Bonnet G, Altan-Bonnet N.
                                                                                                                        
            Cell.
      
                2020 Oct 27;S0092-8674(20):31446-X
        Read Publication
                      Enteric viruses replicate in salivary glands and infect through saliva.
            Authors:S Ghosh, M Kumar, M Santiana, A Mishra, M Zhang, H Labayo, A M Chibly, H Nakamura, T Tanaka, W Henderson, E Lewis, O Voss, Y Su, Y Belkaid, J A Chiorini, M P Hoffman, N Altan-Bonnet
                                                                                                                        
            Nature
      
                2022 Jul 01;607(7918):
        Read Publication
                            
    Related Labs:
                   Host-Pathogen Dynamics
                      Vesicle-Cloaked Virus Clusters Are Optimal Units for Inter-organismal Viral Transmission.
            Authors:Santiana M, Ghosh S, Ho BA, Rajasekaran V, Du WL, Mutsafi Y, De Jésus-Diaz DA, Sosnovtsev SV, Levenson EA, Parra GI, Takvorian PM, Cali A, Bleck C, Vlasova AN, Saif LJ, Patton JT, Lopalco P, Corcelli A, Green KY, Altan-Bonnet N
                                                                                                                        
            Cell Host Microbe
      
                2018 Aug 08;24(2):208-220
        Read Publication
                      Phosphatidylserine vesicles enable efficient en bloc transmission of enteroviruses.
            Authors:Chen YH, Du W, Hagemeijer MC, Takvorian PM, Pau C, Cali A, Brantner CA, Stempinski ES, Connelly PS, Ma HC, Jiang P, Wimmer E, Altan-Bonnet G, Altan-Bonnet N
                                                                                                                        
            Cell
      
                2015 Feb 12;160(4):619-30
        Read Publication
                      Viral reorganization of the secretory pathway generates distinct organelles for RNA replication.
            Authors:Hsu NY, Ilnytska O, Belov G, Santiana M, Chen YH, Takvorian PM, Pau C, van der Schaar H, Kaushik-Basu N, Balla T, Cameron CE, Ehrenfeld E, van Kuppeveld FJ, Altan-Bonnet N
                                                                                                                        
            Cell
      
                2010 Apr 28;141(5):799-811
        Read Publication
                                View More Publications
  Meet the Team

    Nihal Altan-Bonnet

            Nihal Altan-Bonnet, Ph.D.
                Senior Investigator
                Dr. Nihal Altan-Bonnet received her Ph.D. in cellular biophysics from The Rockefeller University. After conducting postdoctoral research with Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the NIH, she joined the faculty of Rutgers University. In 2013, Dr. Altan-Bonnet returned to the NIH as an Earl Stadtman Investigator, becoming head of the Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Dynamics at the NHLBI and was promoted to tenured Senior Investigator in 2017.Dr. Altan-Bonnet has been recognized several times for her outstanding research, including receiving the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) (2012), being named a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2013), a Scialog Fellow of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (2015-2017) and being elected to the American Academy of Microbiology (2022) and the Henry Kunkel Society (2023).
    
          Contact the lab
    50 South DrBethesda, MD 20814United States
        Phone:
                    301-435-0817
                Fax:
  Hannah Karen
    
            Hannah Karen Labayo, AMT, ASCPi, Ph.D.
        

    Postdoctoral Fellow
            Mamata Panigrahi
    
            Mamata Panigrahi
        

    Visiting Post Doc Fellow
            Gunjan Arora
    
            Gunjan Arora
        

    Staff Scientist
            Graham Brogden
    
            Graham Brogden
        

    Research Fellow
            Kojiro Mukai
    
            Kojiro Mukai
        

    Research Fellow
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