William Britt
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Microbiology & Immunology
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a common herpesvirus. In people with weakened immune systems it can cause serious illness or death.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
human cytomegalovirus
congenital CMV
cCMV
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2030
What they work on
- Define how the essential envelope glycoprotein complex gM/gN interacts with membrane-associated outer tegument proteins to drive envelopment of human cytomegalovirus in the cell's assembly compartment.
- Use recombinant cytomegaloviruses carrying targeted mutations in envelope and tegument proteins, selected because they share envelopment defects, to identify the protein interactions virion assembly requires.
- Determine how antiviral antibodies change virus entry into the central nervous system, and how they work with innate immune responses to control brain infection, in a mouse model of congenital CMV.
- Identify how resident brain cells recruit innate immune cells, and how the resulting virus-induced inflammation alters cerebellar development in infected mice.
More about the research
When it infects a fetus in the womb, it can damage the developing brain. About 1 in 200 babies are born with congenital CMV infection, and about 15% of them show problems with neurodevelopment. No licensed vaccine exists, and current antiviral drugs have toxic side effects that limit their dose. Research here approaches CMV from two sides: how the virus builds new virus particles inside a cell, and how infection of the fetal brain leads to lasting harm.
Why it matters
Infants infected with CMV before birth can suffer lifelong neurodevelopmental problems, and patients with weakened immune systems face severe disease, yet no vaccine exists and current drugs are toxic. Mapping the protein interactions the virus needs to assemble could point to new antiviral drug targets. Learning how inflammation damages the developing brain, and which properties make antibodies protective, could guide vaccines and treatments that limit long-term brain damage after congenital infection.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Michael McVoy
Virginia Commonwealth University, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how RL13, an envelope glycoprotein that restrains cytomegalovirus growth, blocks replication by testing whether it interacts with glycoprotein M to impair assembly or release of infectious virions, using genetic and molecular approaches.
Patrizia Caposio
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Microbiology & Immunology
Define and functionally characterize the UL8 interactome during HCMV infection, building on proximity-sensor results that linked the viral protein pUL8 to the RhoA, Wnt and EGFR signaling pathways.
Klaus Fruh
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine which of the six rhesus CMV UL146 family proteins, viral mimics of host chemokines, are required for the virus to spread, and test whether the human CMV versions UL146 and UL147 can substitute for them.
The school
University of Alabama at Birmingham: 45 labs on PI Pages, $866M a year on research, 166 research doctorates a year.
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