Ariana Calderon-Zavala

Research/Areas of Interest

During viral replication, newly assembled herpesviral capsids translocate from the nucleus into the cytoplasm in a process termed nuclear egress. The nuclear egress complex (NEC) is composed of two viral encoded proteins, UL31 and UL34, and mediates nuclear egress by facilitating capsid budding and nuclear membrane fusion. While the NEC is conserved across herpesviruses, much of the work has been focused on alpha-herpesviruses (ie, HSV-1). My work focuses on understanding the NEC in HSV-1 and related gamma-herpesviruses in relation to NEC oligomerization, viral replication, and budding.