Ann C. Palmenberg

Professor of Biochemistry and Institute for Molecular Virology

Dr. Ann Palmenberg’s research program investigates multiple aspects of RNA virology and bioinformatics methods for viral genomics.  Among her major research goals are to explore and define the relationship of the cardiovirus genus to other members of the picornavirus family and to exploit the unique features of the cardioviruses to examine molecular questions about picornavirus translation, proteolytic processing, mor­phogenesis and pathogenicity.  She has developed powerful experimental systems with viral cDNAs for examining IRES-dependent viral protein expression, RNA replication, virion assembly and viral-host inter­actions.  Her current projects include investigating:  1) RNA structure and func­tion in the non-coding sequences of picornaviruses; 2) mechanisms of viral RNA replication; 3)  toxic ribosome synthesis and host-translational shutoff by viruses;  4) nuclear lifecycle of cyto­plasmic viruses; 5) viral proteins in the disruption RAN-GTPase dependent nucleocytoplasmic protein and RNA cycling; 6) proteases of rhinoviruses in shutoff of host cell functions; and 7) new techniques in bioinformatics, sequence analysis, comparative genome evolution, and advanced computer methods for RNA folding and molecular genomics. Dr. Palmenberg collaborates with Drs.  Gern, Goldberg and Sherer. Her lab is supported by an NIAID U19 grant.