Dr. Schiller graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a B.S. in Molecular Biology in 1975. In 1982, he received a Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology of the University of Washington in Seattle. He joined the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology as a National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow in 1983. Dr. Schiller became a Senior Staff Fellow in the LCO in 1986 and assumed his current position of Senior Investigator in 1992.
Infections are species specific and generally induce localized benign proliferation.
However, the lesions induced by certain PVs can undergo malignant progression. The major goals of the laboratory have been to elucidate the role of HPVs in the genesis of human cancers and to develop safe and effective vaccines to prevent genital HPV induced disease. Three types of studies based upon the VLP technology are being conducted. First, questions into the basic biology and biochemistry of virion assembly and infection are being examined. We have determined that the L1 major capsid protein alone has the capacity to self- assemble into structures that closely resemble authentic virions.