Towards Synthetic Virology

Analytical Division Seminar Series

Viruses are remarkably plastic entities.  New strains evolve constantly driven by genetic drift
and iterative mutagenesis.  Acceleration of these evolutionary processes in a laboratory setting will greatly impact our ability to understand molecular mechanisms underlying viral infection as well as vector design for gene therapy applications.  The overarching goal of our lab is to combine the tools and principles of molecular biology & genetics with chemistry & structural biology to generate a synthetic viral toolkit.  The resulting engineered viral strains are utilized to unravel viral infectious pathways, provide novel vectors for gene therapy and reagents for molecular genetics applications.

For more information contact Prof. Andrew Lyon (404-894-4090).