Hunter Russell

Research/Areas of Interest

Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and 2 (HSV-1 & HSV-2) are two of the most common and prevalent members of the Herpesviridae family, affecting a majority of the world’s population and resulting in lifelong infections. Although infections are often asymptomatic, they can lead to sores and blisters of the mouth and/or genitals or even encephalitis or keratitis in the context of the immunocompromised. Both HSV-1 and HSV-2 require four viral surface glycoproteins to mediate entry into the host cell. These four glycoproteins are gD, which binds the host cell receptor, gH/gL, a heterodimer that acts as a fusion regulator, and gB, the fusogen that facilitates merging of the viral envelope and cell membrane. My thesis project focuses on the glycoproteins gD and gH/gL: discerning how they interact with each other and the mechanism by which they initiate and facilitate viral entry. To elucidate this mechanism, I will use cryo-electron microscopy to capture and characterize the structures of the gD-gHgL complex in both the pre-activation and activated conformations.