Anne Moscona, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Physiology & Cellular Biophysics and Microbiology & Immunology
Molecular biology of paramyxoviruses, viral entry, prevention of viral infection.
CURRENT RESEARCH
Our laboratory conducts basic research on paramyxoviruses that cause serious and prevalent childhood diseases, and on newly emerging paramyxoviruses that affect humans. We investigate common pediatric respiratory viruses (parainfluenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus) as well as emerging lethal henipaviruses (Nipah and Hendra viruses). The focus is on the mechanisms of viral entry into host cells, in the intial stages of infection. The laboratory is best known for identifying critical roles of the viral receptor binding protein in activating the viral fusion process during infection. By identifying the mechanism of fusion activation, we have now have identified promising targets for interfering with the viral entry process.
The lab is organized around the interdisciplinary theme of virus-host interactions. Projects draw from strategies and methods of molecular biology, cell biology, biophysics, immunology, computational biology, structural biology, and virology. Projects are inter-related in ways that lead to constant communication and contributions to each other's development.
Selected Publications
2021
Greninger AL, Rybkina D, Lin MJ, Marcink TC, Shean RC, Drew-Bear J, Makhsous N, Harder O, Bovier F, Burstein S, Niewiesk S, Rima BK, Porotto M, Moscona A. Respiratory virus persistence and human parainfluenza virus evolution during lung infection of immune compromised humans, . J Clin Invest. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI150506.
Outlaw VK, Cheloha RW, Jurgens EM, Bovier FT, Zhu Y, Kreitler DF, Harder O, Niewiesk S, Porotto M, Gellman SH, Moscona A. Engineering Protease-Resistant Peptides to Inhibit Human Parainfluenza Viral Respiratory Infection. J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Apr 21;143(15):5958-5966. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c01565. Epub 2021 Apr 7. PMID: 33825470
de Vries RD, Schmitz KS, Bovier FT, Predella C, Khao J, Noack D, Haagmans BL, Herfst S, Stearns KN, Drew-Bear J, Biswas S, Rockx B, McGill G, Dorrello NV, Gellman SH, Alabi CA*, de Swart RL*, Moscona A*, Porotto M*. Intranasal fusion inhibitory lipopeptide prevents direct-contact SARS-CoV-2 transmission in ferrets. Science. 2021 Feb 17:eabf4896. doi: 10.1126/science.abf4896. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33597220. (*co-corresponding/co-senior)
Marcink TC, Wang T, des Georges A, Porotto M, Moscona A. Human parainfluenza virus fusion complex glycoproteins imaged in action on authentic viral surfaces. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Sep 21;16(9):e1008883. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008883. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32956394.
2020
Porotto, M, Ferren, M, Chen, Y-W, Siu, Y, Makhsous, N, Rima, B, Briese, T, Greninger, AL, Snoeck, H-W, Moscona, A. Authentic modeling of human respiratory virus infection in human pluripotent stem cell-derived lung organoids. MBio. 2019 May 7;10(3). pii: e00723-19. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00723-19. PMID: 31064833
2019