Sepehr Seirafian

TL;DR: To overcome rapid emergence of mutations in genetically intact HCMV, a system in which RL13 and UL131A were conditionally repressed during virus propagation is developed, which permits studies to be undertaken with a clonal, characterized H CMV strain containing the complete wild-type gene complement.

TL;DR: US18 and US20 were identified as novel NK cell evasion functions capable of acting independently to promote MICA degradation by lysosomal degradation and are the first members of the US12 gene family to have been assigned a function.

TL;DR: A mass spectrometry-based interactome analysis identified a network of >3400 virus-host and >150 virus-virus protein interactions, providing insights into functions for multiple viral genes and suggested its importance in viral replication.

TL;DR: Human cytomegalovirus UL148 was necessary and sufficient to promote intracellular retention of CD58 during HCMV infection, highlighting the capacity for their potential use in modulating immunity during the development of anti-HCMV vaccines and H CMV-based vaccine vectors.