Schuyler Van Engelenburg

Viral pathogens still plague our modern society despite the promise of highly effective therapies. Tremendous advances in our understanding of the genetics, biochemistry, and cellular pathology of viral infections are, however, beginning to fill the gaps in our knowledge and leading to new antiviral therapies. Nevertheless, many gaps remain in our understanding of the nanoscale and molecular dynamics of viral entry, replication, and assembly. As such, my laboratory focuses on developing cutting-edge multidisciplinary techniques to understand the host-viral interface on a truly molecular level. Specifically, this includes advanced superresolution microscopy techniques, protein chemistry and probe development, and computational image analysis to quantitatively understand the cellular, biochemical, and genetic drivers of HIV-1 assembly. To this end, my research is aimed at constructing molecularly accurate spatial and temporal models for HIV biogenesis. It is my hope that by pinpointing the weaknesses and dependencies of HIV assembly, that future research will lead to the development of new antiviral therapies targeting the assembly stage of the infection cycle.