John H. Connor

My laboratory studies viruses and how they dominate their cellular hosts. Viruses are parasites, incapable of reproducing on their own. Thus, to make copies of themselves they have to co-opt host functions, ranging from protein synthesis to DNA or RNA synthesis. Understandably, the infected host is not at all happy about viral infection and has evolved a dense array of tactics to sense and stop virus replication. This situation sets up a pitched battle between the virus (the invader) and the potential invaded host cell. We know that this battle is joined in every viral infection, but since we still get sick, our immune systems are clearly being beaten. Therefore, we need a greater understanding of how viruses overwhelm or disarm the host defenses so that we can develop new antiviral molecules and vaccines that will effectively augment our antiviral defenses.

To obtain a picture of how the virus-host interaction works and to identify how we can tip the balance in favor of the host, we ask two basic questions:

1) How do viruses hijack the cells that they infect?
2) How do cells defend themselves against viral infection?

To ask these questions we apply molecular biology, microscopy, biochemistry, genetic, high throughput screening and systems biology approaches. Existing projects in the lab include:

• Determining how viruses inactivate cellular signaling networks to both promote their replication and short-circuit the host response
• Identifying host responses that block virus infection
• Determining the response of the circulating immune system to infection by hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever viruses

Selected Publications

1. Yurt A, Daaboul GG, Connor JH, Goldberg BB, Selim Ünlü M. (2012) Single nanoparticle detectors for biological applications. Nanoscale 2012 Feb 7;4(3):715-26. PMID: 22214976 PMCID: PMC3759154
2. Dower K, Filone CM, Hodges EN, Bjornson ZB, Rubins KH, Brown LE, Schaus S, Hensley L, Connor JH. (2011) Identification of a pyridopyrimidinone inhibitor of orthopoxviruses from a diversity-oriented synthesis library. J Virol. 2012 Mar;86(5):2632-40. PMID: 22205744 PMCID: PMC3302283
3. Sebba D, Lastovich AG, Kuroda M, Fallows E, Johnson J, Ahouidi A, Honko AN, Fu H, Nielson R, Carruthers E, Diédhiou C, Ahmadou D, Soropogui B, Ruedas J, Peters K, Bartkowiak M, Magassouba N, Mboup S, Ben Amor Y, Connor JH, Weidemaier K. A point-of-care diagnostic for differentiating Ebola from endemic febrile diseases. Sci Transl Med. 2018 Dec 12;10(471):eaat0944. PMID: 3054178