Benhur Lee
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Bats carry viruses that occasionally jump into people and cause severe disease, and some of the deadliest known examples come from a single viral family. Nipah virus kills between 40% and nearly all of the people it infects, causing both respiratory illness and brain inflammation, and there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
henipavirus
Nipah virus
Hendra virus
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Jan 2030
What they work on
- Define which human cell types the bat-derived Yunnan henipaviruses 1 and 2 infect, using primary cells and organoids, and correlate infection with levels of ephrin-A proteins — the cell-surface molecules these viruses use to enter, unlike the ephrin-B2/B3 used by Nipah virus.
- Measure how tightly the Yunnan henipavirus receptor-binding proteins attach to each ephrin-A protein, and test versions from humans, bats, pigs and mice to find the molecular features that create barriers to jumping between species.
- Use biologically contained Nipah virus replicons lacking the fusion gene, dressed in Yunnan henipavirus surface proteins, to study single-round infection at biosafety level 2 instead of level 4.
- Characterize broadly neutralizing antibodies already generated from Harbour H2L2 mice, which carry human antibody genes, against the fusion and receptor-binding glycoproteins of henipaviruses.
- Design immunogens that better expose conserved regions of the fusion and receptor-binding proteins shared by Nipah, Hendra, Ghana and Cedar viruses, and test whether the resulting antibodies protect in animal models.
- Assemble and optimize antibody cocktails that neutralize across henipavirus clades, and assess whether the immunogens used to elicit them could serve as vaccine candidates.
- Determine which human cells Menangle and Sosuga viruses infect, using organ explant models of human tissue, to define the cellular tropism of these bat-derived pararubulaviruses.
- Identify the receptors Menangle and Sosuga viruses use to enter cells by applying reverse genetics systems that allow individual viral entry genes to be altered and tested, and develop an animal model reflecting human disease.
More about the research
Work in this lab centers on a basic question with direct public health consequences: how do these viruses get into human cells, which cells and species are vulnerable, and can that knowledge be turned into broadly protective antibodies? Three projects pursue this — one on newly discovered bat viruses that have switched to a different cell-surface docking protein, one building therapeutic antibodies that work across the whole viral family, and one on a related group of bat viruses whose biology is nearly unknown.
Why it matters
Nipah and Hendra viruses kill a large fraction of those they infect and have no licensed vaccine or treatment, and new relatives keep turning up in bats. Antibodies that neutralize across the whole family could serve as treatment or prevention during an outbreak rather than only against one known strain. Mapping which receptors new bat viruses use, and which animal species they could bind, would help surveillance programs decide where to look and inform preparedness for related pararubulaviruses that already sicken people and livestock.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Development of broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against henipaviruses
NIH · Feb 2025 – Jan 2030
Understanding the Tropism and Pathogenesis of Pararubulaviruses
NIH · Nov 2024 – Oct 2029
Differential Ephrin-A Receptor Usage Determines Tissue Tropism of Novel Bat Henipaviruses
NIH · Aug 2026 – Jul 2028
Closest labs
Kai Xu
Ohio State University, OH·Biophysics
Determine structures of soluble, stabilized G and F glycoprotein ectodomains from emerging henipaviruses, including the bat-borne Cedar virus and Angavokely virus, to capture the full tetrameric G and the fragile prefusion F.
David Veesler
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how broadly serum antibodies from nonhuman primates immunized with nanoparticle vaccines co-displaying multiple receptor-binding-domain and spike antigens bind and neutralize betacoronaviruses.
Scott Pegan
University of California-Riverside, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how non-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against GP38, a non-structural glycoprotein of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, confer protection, using combined molecular, cell-based and animal approaches.
The school
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: 45 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 62 research doctorates a year.
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