Göran Akusjärvi research group

Adenovirus in basic and medical research

Viruses typically encode for a few potent regulatory proteins that have the capacity to rapidly and efficiently inactivate host cell gene expression, resulting in a selective synthesis of virus specific gene products in infected cells. The great advantage with viruses is that they are small and therefore offer a simple genetic system that is easy to manipulate in vitro. Further, the mechanisms discovered in viral model system often recapitulates what life does in general. Thus, there have been, and still are, several lessons to be learned from studies of our viruses. Our current work is focused around six areas covering basic mechanisms in gene expression and medical applications of viral vectors.

We study:

• Long lasting adenovirus infections in human disease
• Regulation of cholesterol metabolism in adenovirus-infected cells
• The remodeling of the host cell RNA splicing machinery during an adenovirus infection.
 
• The structure and function of the miRNAs encoded by adenovirus. 
• The mechanisms in, and significance of, adenovirus suppression of RNA interference (RNAi).