A post doctoral position is available in Lab of Immunogenetics, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, to study cellular mechanism of HIV infection induced host cell signaling for potential development of antiviral therapies

We are interested in targeting potential host genes and pathways to facilitate HIV-induced viral release. We recently identify L-selectin (CD62L) as a viral adhesion receptor on CD4 T cells. The binding of viral envelope glycans to CD62L facilitates HIV entry and infection, and L-selectin expression on central memory CD4 T cells supports their preferential infection by HIV. Upon infection, the virus downregulates L-selectin expression through shedding, resulting in an apparent loss of central memory CD4 T cells. Inhibition of L-selectin shedding markedly reduces HIV-1 infection and suppresses viral release, implementing L-selectin shedding for HIV-1 release (Kononchik et al. HIV-1 Targets L-selectin for adhesion and induces its shedding for viral release. Nat Commun July 19;9(1):2825, 2018). Our recent work further showed that L-selectin shedding requires HIV-1 nef induction of caspases and caspase inhibition suppressed the viral release (Segura et al. HIV-1 release requires nef-induced caspase activation PLOS one 18(2), 2023). For more information, please refer to https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/peter-sun-phd

Qualified candidate should have a PhD degree obtained within past five years in related research fields.

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