Learn more about our work by via our peer-reviewed publications.
Our Research
Dr. Neumann’s laboratory has pioneered research describing how HSV-1 controls transcription through manipulation of chromatin architecture on the viral genome. HSV-1 infects more than 70% of the population by early adulthood and is the leading infectious cause of blindness in the world. HSV-1 establishes a lifelong latent infection in the host, where episodic reactivation results in corneal scarring and ocular pathogenesis. Latency and reactivation of HSV-1 are ultimately transcriptional outcomes that are mediated by chromatin on the viral genome and Dr. Neumann’s lab was the first to show that HSV-1 lytic genes were likely silenced by the formation of 3-dimensional DNA loops formed in the viral genome in latently infected animals. Her lab developed a novel corneal delivery of AAV vectors containing siRNAs to knock down host proteins in latently infected animal models, revolutionizing the ability to study how host proteins contribute to viral pathogenesis in vivo.