His recent awards include a Collaborative Project Award from the National Interagency Confederation for Biomedical Research (2018) and an NIH Intramural Targeted Anti-COVID-19 Program Award (2020). Compton joined the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program as Head of the Antiviral Immunity and Resistance Section. Olivier Schwartz, he provided important insight into the complex ways in which mammalian cells have evolved to block virus entry into cells. Compton was the recipient of a competitive postdoctoral fellowship from the Louis Pasteur Foundation to support his work at Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Michael Emerman (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), he received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and characterized the coevolution of primate lentiviruses with their hosts. As a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington in 2012. Overall, cell-intrinsic immunity acting on membranes performs dual antiviral functions by 1) preventing virus infection of individual cells, and 2) limiting the spread of virus between cells.Ĭurrent projects in the lab revolve around the following themes:ġ. Mechanisms of virus entry into cells and evasion of cell-intrinsic immunityĢ. Enhancement of virus delivery for gene editing in human cells and in vivoģ. Signals regulating the intrinsic antiviral state: stress, metabolism, differentiation, and activationĭr. In addition to protecting cells from infection, cellular membrane components also impact the structure and infectivity of nascent virions produced from infected cells. Residents of this critical threshold include cellular transmembrane proteins that remodel membrane vesicles or redirect their trafficking in order to inhibit the viral entry process. Cellular membranes, composed of proteins and lipids, are the first line of defense against infection. We employ a “cross-species” approach, in which diverse viruses are paired with host cells of diverse species in order to reveal cell-intrinsic barriers that limit virus infection. Since its inception in 2017, the Compton lab focuses on mechanisms of cell-intrinsic immunity and the strategies employed by HIV and emerging viruses to evade or overcome these immune barriers.īy combining relevant experimental systems in virology with perspectives in cell biology and evolutionary biology, we aim to better understand the factors governing virus entry into cells. Research in this field, which relies increasingly on interdisciplinary approaches and bioinformatics, has demonstrated that the survival of single cells equates strongly with survival of the organism, and even of the population (or species) to which it belongs. As such, cell-intrinsic immune factors, also known as host restriction factors, impose the earliest-acting barriers to invading pathogens. The "cell-intrinsic" arm of innate immunity prevents virus replication in host cells by detecting virus invasion and interfering with the viral life cycle. The clinical outcome of viral infection, the difference between survival and death of the host, rests delicately on events occurring at the molecular level of individual cells. Improving Human Antiviral Immunity, One Cell at a Time
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |