David C Bloom,

Fun Fact: Foodie with a passion for extreme and unusual food elements and cuisines. The major focus of my research is to understand the viral and neuron-specific factors that allow herpes simplex virus (HSV) to establish and maintain latency in neurons. Our lab pioneered the concept that epigenetic modifications and CTCF chromatin insulators regulate the HSV-1 genome during latency. More recently we have developed the first scalable human neuron in vitro model of HSV latency and reactivation (LUHMES) that is allowing us for the first time to probe protein-RNA/DNA interactions in latently infected cells on a large scale. Current projects in the lab include: 1) analyzing interactions between viral lncRNAs and cellular proteins and determining their role(s) in regulating HSV latency, 2) studying the mechanism of HSV reactivation at the single cell level, and 3) development and commercialization of novel gene therapy approaches to treating recurrent HSV ocular and genital disease.