Ethel Cesarman
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a common herpesvirus that can cause cancer. It is linked to several lymphomas, which are cancers of immune cells called B cells.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
Epstein-Barr virus
viral latency
tumor virology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Identify how key germinal center cytokines, the signaling proteins in lymph nodes where B cells mature, act on enzymes that chemically mark DNA and histones to alter the EBV genome and choose which latency program the virus uses.
- Define how linker histone H1, a DNA-packaging protein that EBV strongly reduces and that is often mutated in lymphoma, shapes the viral genome and controls EBV latency programs.
- Relate B-cell differentiation state, epigenetic profile and EBV latency pattern in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas from people living with HIV.
More about the research
These lymphomas include Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). They are much more common in people living with HIV, even those taking antiretroviral therapy. After infection, EBV hides inside B cells in a dormant state called latency. In each type of lymphoma, the virus switches on a different set of its own cancer-promoting proteins (oncoproteins). This project asks what decides which set is switched on. It focuses on epigenetics, the chemical marks and packaging that control which genes are active without changing the DNA sequence.
Why it matters
People living with HIV face a much higher risk of B-cell lymphomas, and Epstein-Barr virus often causes them. This work could show how the virus and the host B cell together switch on viral cancer proteins. That knowledge could point to new treatment approaches that target these epigenetic controls in EBV-driven lymphomas, including AIDS-related lymphomas.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shannon Kenney
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether primary human germinal center B cells infected with the lab's EBNA2-deleted EBV mutant, with or without MYC overexpression, form Burkitt-, Hodgkin- or diffuse large B cell lymphoma-like tumors in immunodeficient NSG mice.
Abhijit Patel
Yale University, CT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Map the order in which methylation changes in Epstein-Barr virus DNA and host B-cell gene promoters appear in blood before lymphoma is diagnosed, using banked plasma from a long-term cohort of people with HIV.
Paul Lieberman
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether EBV reshapes the host low-oxygen response during primary infection to keep infected cells alive, examining how the viral proteins EBNA1 and EBNA2 bind and regulate host hypoxia genes including HIF1A.
The school
Weill Medical College of Cornell University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 59 research doctorates a year.
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