At the TRR179 conference discussing the elimination and persistence of hepatitis virus infections in Freiburg, Germany, Alex delivered a talk titled, "Mechanistic insights into structure and function of hepatitis E virus ORF1 protein". This work probes the function of ORF1, which has been a somewhat controversial debate in the field. This work seeks to elucidate the actual function(s) of the protein in order to provide a better understanding of the HEV infection process.

We had the best time celebrating Saori and her future baby, Soh! We're all thrilled for you to welcome your new baby boy into the world and we hope this baby shower showed you our excitement. We'll miss you as you go on maternity leave but we can't wait to see you again with your bundle of joy! Congrats to you and Tomo!

The 2021 Annual Molecular Biology Departmental Retreat was held this past weekend at Princeton and we were happy to have three of our lab members present their work!

Robbie gave an oral presentation on “Multi-pathway innate immunity antagonism by Hepatitis E virus ORF1 protein”, Saori presented a poster entitled “Profiling the SARS-CoV2 spike protein interactome using proximity labeling”, and Tomo presented a poster titled “Generation and characterization of genetically and antigenically diverse infectious clones of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes 1-4”.

We all enjoyed learning about their work and the research done by all the labs in our department! We also want to thank the Molecular Biology department and Terry MacFarland for doing preparing a wonderful event!

The Ploss lab is excited to welcome SEVEN new undergrads to our ranks!

Already diving in for some summer research are rising seniors Debby Park ‘22, Daniel Beard ‘22, and Mansi Totwani ‘22. It’s been great having their energy in lab and to see how quickly they’re learning the ropes!

Their mentors also have some very nice things to say about them. Stephanie, who’s working with Mansi, says “I’m really enjoying running around with my chickadee and showing her how to become a virus queen!” Yongzhen, who works with Debby, reports that “she is excited after getting her positive cells!” And according to Keith, “Daniel has got some beautiful qPCR results!”

Come September, we’ll also be joined by Maricar Almeda ‘22, Olivia Sakaguchi ‘23, Christine Nguyen ‘23, and Brian Li ’24. See you all soon!

Look at those worker bees getting stuck into their summer research! Lab life feels like it’s gradually getting back to normal!

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