About Our Research
Our lab performs research on viral pathogens that cause epidemics of gastroenteritis and respiratory diseases, focusing on epidemiology, viral structures, virus-host interactions, and vaccine development.
The central theme of our current research aims to understand the initial steps of viral infections and develop tactics blocking such steps to prevent viral diseases. Specifically, we explore how viral pathogens interact with host receptors via their surface spike proteins for viral attachment and entry. The key viral proteins are then selected as vaccine targets.
On the other hand, we take advantage of the homotypic interactions of noroviral capsid proteins to create nanoparticles as platforms to display viral antigens for enhanced immunogenicity as vaccine candidates.
Currently we are working on several important viruses, including norovirus (NoV) and rotavirus (RV) that cause epidemics of acute gastroenteritis, as well as influenza virus (IV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that lead to seasonal influenza (flu) and the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), respectively.
