She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Virginia and completed postdoctoral training at ChemoCentryx, Inc. She was a Senior Scientist in Drug Discovery at Ceretek, LLC before joining the faculty at USF in 2003. Research in her laboratory is currently focused on two areas: 1) the contribution of herpesviruses to the development or progression of cancer, and 2) strategies herpesviruses use to manipulate the host immune system and establish lifelong latent infection.