Munger Lab
Virus-Host Interactions that Determine Infectious Outcomes
A major focus of our laboratory is human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a herpes virus, which is the leading cause of congenital viral infection, occurring in approximately 1% of all live births. Congenital HCMV infection results in central nervous system damage in the majority of symptomatic newborns. HCMV infection also poses a serious health risk to immunosuppressed individuals, increasing morbidity in the elderly and in patients receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy, including cancer patients, transplant recipients, and AIDS patients.
The majority of the projects in our lab study the interfaces between viruses and the host cell that determine the outcome of infection. Specifically, we focus on how viruses usurp cellular metabolic controls and subvert cellular anti-viral signaling to support productive infection. The goal of our laboratory is to increase our mechanistic understanding of these processes to identify novel avenues for therapeutic intervention that could prevent virally-associated pathogenesis.
Joshua C. Munger, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
- Catabolism of extracellular glutathione supplies amino acids to support tumor growth.; bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. 2024 Oct 11.
- A whole food, plant-based diet reduces amino acid levels in patients with metastatic breast cancer.; medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences. 2024 Oct 09.
- The Lactate Receptor GPR81 is a Mechanism of Leukemia-Associated Macrophage Polarization in the Bone Marrow Microenvironment.; bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. 2024 Aug 16.
- Platelet Ido1 expression is induced during Plasmodium yoelii infection, altering plasma tryptophan metabolites.; Blood advances. 2024 Aug 12.
- Glutathione synthesis in the mouse liver supports lipid abundance through NRF2 repression.; Nature communications; Vol 15(1), pp. 6152. 2024 Jul 21.
- Proteolytic cleavage and inactivation of the TRMT1 tRNA modification enzyme by SARS-CoV-2 main protease.; eLife; Vol 12. 2024 May 30.
News
Affiliations
- Biochemistry & Biophysics
- Microbiology & Immunology
- Center for Biomedical Informatics
- James P. Wilmot Cancer Center
- NIH T32 Training Grant in Cellular, Biochemical & Molecular Sciences
- NIH T32 Training Grant in Immunology
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Ph.D. Program
- Biophysics, Structural & Computational Biology Ph.D. Program
- Immunology, Microbiology, and Virology Ph.D. Program
December 4, 2023
Joshua Munger Receives Outstanding Graduate Program Director Award
June 12, 2020
Cancer Investigators Pivot, Take on Coronavirus Research
August 1, 2019
Chris Goodwin Successfully Defends His Thesis
August 16, 2017
Biochemistry Graduate Students Sierra Fox and Chris Goodwin Explain CRISPR Gene Editing on YouTube
Contact Us
Munger Lab
MC 3-7544
601 Elmwood Ave
Rochester, NY 14642
(585) 271-2683