UCLA MIMG – Faculty Research

Arnold Berk, M.D.

Molecular mechanisms regulating transcription
My lab studies the molecular interactions that regulate transcription in mammalian cells, focusing particular attention on transcription factors encoded by oncogenes and tumor suppressors. The decision to initiate transcription of a gene is the key control point regulating its expression ...(more)

Irvin Chen, Ph.D.

AIDS & cancer causes and therapy, viruses, gene therapy
The overall research interests of this laboratory are to understand, at the molecular and cellular levels, how the human retroviruses, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV), cause AIDS and cancer, respectively. We are also developing ...(more)

Asim Dasgupta, Ph.D.

Molecular Biology of Small Mammalian RNA Viruses
Our laboratory is studying the molecular biology of small mammalian RNA viruses. These viruses called picornaviruses include those inducing common cold (rhinoviruses), poliomyelitis, (poliovirus), infectious hepatitis (hepatitis A), encephalitis and juvenile diabetes ...(more)

Fred Eiserling, Ph.D.

Structural studies of virus assembly
Our lab uses the bacterial virus T4 to explore problems in cell biology related to control of shape and size of subcellular organelles. Our research is aimed at understanding more fully the shape and size determining mechanisms in morphogenesis using bacteriophages as an ...(more)

Lawrence Feldman, Ph.D.

Molecular Aspects of Herpes Virus Infection
The laboratory is investigating the molecular aspects of Herpes simplex virus latency in a mouse and rabbit model. In the mouse model, the promoter for the LAT (latency associated) transcript has been identified, and efforts to map the transcription factor sites for neuronal ...(more)

Benhur Lee, M.D.

Viral Attachment and Entry, HIV and Emerging Viruses, Glycobiology
My lab has several areas of research interests; all within the intersection of glycans and dendritic cell biology. (1) Immunobiology of DC-SIGN mediated transfer of HIV-1. DC-SIGN is a viral attachment molecule specifically expressed on dendritic cells (DCs), and is though ...(more)

Debi Nayak, B.V.Sc., Ph.D.

Molecular Biology Influenza (Orthomyxo) and Sendai (Paramyxo) Viruses
Major research effort in Dr. Nayak’s lab is directed towards understanding the molecular basis of viral pathogenesis with special emphasis on pathogenesis, replication, assembly, morphogenesis and budding of influenza, Sendai and HIV viruses. Current projects ...(more)

Z. Hong Zhou, Ph.D.

Technical Research Interest
Recent advances have given cryo-electron microscopy and single-particle reconstruction (“cryoEM”) an increasingly important role in determining, at 4-7 Å resolution, the 3D structures of macromolecular complexes or biological nanomachines (~150 kDa and 10 nm in dimension) ...(more)