I research a rare virus that attacks the nervous system in some immunosuppressed patients. While more than 70 percent of the population is infected with this JC virus, it remains latent except in a few cases in which a patient's immune system is compromised, such as in AIDS patients, transplant patients, and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. When activated, the virus travels to the nervous system and attacks cells that produce myelin.
Myelin is integral to the functioning of the nervous system, acting to insulate axons.
The destruction of these cells is uniformly fatal, and this attack is always fatal for the patient. I am trying to isolate the receptor that allows the virus to enter the cell. In doing so, we may be able to learn how to prevent the virus from spreading to the nervous system and causing this disease. I became interested in this line of research as an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Majoring in neurobiology, I found my niche working with virologists.