Karla Kirkegaard

Lab investigates the cell biology, genetics and biochemistry of RNA viral propagation, using poliovirus as a model system. For many subcellular viruses and parasites, RNA, not DNA, is the carrier of genetic information. Poliovirus serves as a model to increase our understanding of positive-strand RNA viruses for which no vaccine is available and which remain a significant health hazard: examples include other picornaviruses, such as rhinoviruses, coxsackieviruses and the deadly enterovirus 71, as well as more distantly related positive-strand RNA viruses such as hepatitis C and Dengue fever.