Stacia Phillips

E-mail: phil0500@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Thesis Advisor: Wade Bresnahan

Degree received:
B.S., Microbiology, University of Iowa, 2001

Honors and Awards:

• Graduate School Block Fellowship, Fall Semester 2007

Thesis research:

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous member of the herpesvirus family that causes disease in individuals with compromised immune function. HCMV is a large complex virus, both in structure and genome coding capacity. Very little is known about how HCMV particles are assembled late in infection. We predict that specific interactions that occur between viral proteins play critical roles in the processes of tegumentation and envelopment during assembly of virus particles. Using yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation analysis, we have demonstrated that the tegument protein UL94 interacts with several other HCMV structural proteins. We hypothesize that these interactions play an essential role in the viral life cycle. Future work will focus on examining the functional relevance of these interactions in the context of HCMV infection.