Suzanne Geer

Microbiology

BA – Williams College, 2007

Gummuluru Laboratory

I work on determining the differences in how HIV-1 and HIV-2 establish infection in myeloid cells and the effect on pathogenicity. Additionally, I examine whether HIV-2 is able to utilize the same factors as HIV-1 to trans infect CD4+ T cells. Finally, I investigate whether the differences found between the two virus types trigger different immune responses in target cells.  My goal is to determine what viral proteins are responsible for the different phenotypes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 and examine how they interact with host machinery to modulate virus infection and immune activation.