Projects

The unifying theme of my predoctoral work is understanding the relationship between bunyavirus entry factors and pathogenesis. This includes emerging viruses with pandemic potential like Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV) and Oropouche virus (OROV), and endemic viruses causing lethal encephalitis in children like La Crosse encephalitis virus (LACV).

Mouse models of Oropouche virus hepatic disease

In response to the ongoing outbreak of Oropouche fever in the Americas, I have shifted the focus of my research to address this emerging threat while maintaining the unifying theme of my work. The current OROV outbreak has seen its geographic expansion across South America, Central America, and Cuba, a staggering increase in case numbers, and newly recognized severe outcomes including vertical transmission, hemorrhagic fever, and death. Consequently, there is a present need to understand severe outcomes of Oropouche fever and test potential therapeutics.

Despite epidemiologic observations that OROV infection induces mildly elevated liver enzymes and the fact that the first lethal cases of Oropouche fever were attributed to liver involvement, the role of the liver in OROV pathogenesis has been neglected. To that end, I developed two novel mouse models of OROV-induced hepatic disease. 

Research products:

• Lethal and sublethal mouse models of Oropouche fever hepatic disease, Midwest Virology Symposium 2025, University of Kentucky, KY; September 2025

• Role of Lrp1 in Oropouche virus pathogenesis in mice, American Society of Virology's 44th Annual Meeting, McGill University, Montreal; July 2025

• Murine models of Oropouche Fever and the role of Lrp1 in Pathogenesis, 2025 i4Kids Symposium, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA; March 2025