Christopher Collins Email & Phone Number

Rockville, Maryland, United States

Rockville, Md

Atlanta, Ga

• Characterized the immunoglobulin repertoire of Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) infected germinal center B cells and plasma cells.• Identified interleukin 21 as a critical host factor required for efficient establishment of MHV68 latency.

Atlanta, Ga

• Characterized a fundamental difference in the biology of gamma1 and gamma2-herpesviruses in their requirement for CD4 T cell help in driving proliferation of latently infected germinal center B cells.• Created a transgenic MHV68 that expresses yellow fluorescent protein, allowing direct identification of infected cells by flow cytometry as well as in tissue sections by immunofluorescence microscopy. Utilized this virus to identify and characterize cell populations infected with MHV68.

Pittsburgh, Pa

• Research focus: Genetic dissection of the transcriptional regulatory function of viral interferon regulatory factor 1 (vIRF1) of Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus.• Genetically dissected out the domains of vIRF1 that are required for interaction with the transcriptional co-adapters CBP and p300 from the domains required for transcriptional repression of p53 and interferon signaling.

Tampa, Fl

• Research focus: Identification of the viral elements involved in episomal maintenance of an oncogenic herpesvirus genome. • Developed episomal maintenance assays to identify the viral elements required for episomal maintenance of the genome of Herpesvirus saimiri. Showed that the viral protein LANA bound the terminal repeats of the viral genome in a sequence specific manner and tethered the viral episome to host cell chromosomes, mediating both replication and partitioning of the viral genome to daughter cells during cell division.

Ph.D., Medical Microbiology And Immunology

M.S., Biology

B.S., Biology Major, Chemistry Minor