David Morgens
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, LA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
About 15% of cancers are linked to viral infections. One cancer-causing virus is Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), which mainly affects untreated AIDS patients and other people with weak immune systems.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
Biochemistry
- Topics
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus
oncogenic virus
late gene transcription
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Identify mutations in KSHV's DNA replication proteins that block late gene expression but still allow viral DNA copying, using a high-throughput method for making and testing many viral mutants.
- Map the parts of the KSHV origin of lytic replication, the DNA site where viral copying starts, needed for DNA copying versus late gene expression, by targeting it with dCas9, a CRISPR protein that binds but does not cut DNA.
- Find the human host factors that KSHV hijacks to link late gene expression to genome copying, using genetic interaction screens built on the viral mutants and DNA elements found in earlier aims.
More about the research
KSHV has an unusual rule in its life cycle: an essential group of its "late" genes switches on only after the virus has copied its own DNA genome. This link has been known for a long time, but no one knows how it works. Because the step is unique to the virus, it could be a weak point for drugs.
Why it matters
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus causes cancer in people with weakened immune systems, including untreated AIDS patients. Finding the viral proteins, DNA regions and host factors that tie late viral gene expression to viral DNA copying could reveal new therapeutic targets against this cancer-causing virus. The tools developed may also help study related double-stranded DNA viruses.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Neelam Sharma-Walia
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how KSHV infection turns up the host protein nucleolin and whether nucleolin is needed to keep the virus in its quiet latent state, studying infected endothelial cells and primary effusion lymphoma cells.
Allison Didychuk
Yale University, CT·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Determine the function of an essential but poorly understood herpesvirus packaging factor using proteomics and microscopy, and develop deep mutational scanning (testing many mutations at once) for herpesviral proteins.
Bernadett Papp
University of Florida, FL·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how short-chain fatty acids, small molecules released by oral bacteria, increase protein levels of stress response-related host transcription factors in oral epithelial cells, and how those factors promote KSHV infection.
The school
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport: 6 labs on PI Pages, $32M a year on research, 9 research doctorates a year.
More about Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport
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