Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Molecular Microbiology
katya.heldwein@tufts.edu

The work in my laboratory focuses on structural analysis of the complex cell-entry machinery of herpesviruses with the ambition to develop a “molecular movie” illustrating successive steps during entry. Herpesviruses are a family of human pathogens, such as Herpes Simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus, that infect their hosts for life, causing cold sores, blindness, encephalitis, cancers, and life-threatening conditions in immunocompromised individuals. Knowing the detailed mechanism of their entry into cells may lead to the design of antiviral therapeutics. In our research, we use X-ray crystallography with contributions from other biophysical and biochemical techniques.

Visit the Heldwein research web site