Luis Sigal, DVM, PhD

Research in my laboratory revolves around viral immunology and pathogenesis.   While during my career I have worked and published papers using multiple viruses (foot-and-mouth disease virus, influenza virus, poliovirus, Lymphocytic choriomeningitis, vaccinia virus), during the last decade, one of our major interests has been to study the immunobiology and pathogenesis of ectromelia virus (ECTV), the agent of mousepox, the mouse homolog of human smallpox.  ECTV is an outstanding model to study acute viral infections as they spread in their biological host following infection through a natural route. Many of of my ECTV papers have been published in high impact journals such as Immunity, Cell Host & Microbe, J. Exp Med, PNAS, PLoS Pathogens, and others.  Our papers identified several of the mechanisms whereby various components of the immune response protect from mousepox including Type I and II interferons, NFκB signaling, natural killer cells, CD8 T-cells, helper and cytolytic CD4 T-cells, and B lymphocytes. Some of our papers also addressed the role of viral immune evasion proteins that counteract the immune mechanisms of resistance to viral disease.  Recently, my laboratory has also expanded to study the immune response to Zika and other viruses and to exploit viruses to treat ovarian cancer.