Viral Oncogenesis

Program Leader: Richard Longnecker, PhD
Program Co-Leader: Curt Horvath, PhD

The Viral Oncogenesis Program of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center is a basic research program that was formed as a result of the strength of Members of the Cancer Center whose work focuses on viral oncogenesis and related topics.

Richard Longnecker, PhD, an accomplished cancer virologist, is the Program Leader located on the Chicago Campus. To fully integrate the Program on the Evanston Campus, a recently recruited senior faculty member, Curt M. Horvath, PhD, whose expertise in virology and cancer biology complements the goals of the Program was appointed as the Co-Leader.

Overall, the Viral Oncogenesis Program is designed to coordinate and focus molecular virology research of the Cancer Center on the Evanston and Chicago campuses of Northwestern. It is an interdepartmental program composed of 16 faculty from 5 departments and 2 schools. Between January, 2001 and September, 2006 there have been 231 cancer relevant publications from the current program members. Thirty-six (16%) of these publications represent intra-programmatic collaborations and 34 (15%) represent inter-programmatic collaborations. Total current cancer-relevant peer-reviewed funding is $5,672,339 (direct) with $1,716,305 (direct) from NCI and $3,956,034 (direct) from other peer-reviewed sources.

Specific areas of research include viral oncogenesis, the molecular biology and genetics of viral transcription and replication, virus structure and function, viral pathogenesis, virus entry into susceptible cells, maturation of infectious virions from infected cells, antiviral therapy, modulation of the host cell immune response during virus infections, and the development of cancer related gene therapy using virus based vectors. The importance of such studies is clearly demonstrated by the observation that over 20% of human cancers may have a viral etiology. This number may increase as yet identified viruses are recognized to be causally associated with malignancy.

In addition to linking cancer to a specific cause, which could serve as a target for therapeutic intervention, research on viral oncogenesis has provided major insights in our understanding of mechanisms regulating cellular proliferation and differentiation, as well as neoplastic transformation.

Program members are highly interactive and collaborate both intra- and inter-programmatically on a spectrum of projects including translational initiatives.

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