Target Audience

Des Moines University faculty, staff, and students.

Speaker

Cathy Miller, BA, PhD
Assistant Professor, Vetrinary Microbiology & Preventive Medicine, Iowa State University

Dr. Miller indicated no relevant financial relationships to disclose relevant to the content of this CME activity.

Dr. Miller’s research focuses on the interface between viruses and the cells they infect. Several projects in the laboratory focus on defining, at a molecular level, ways in which segmented double-stranded RNA viruses of the Reoviridae family commandeer cellular space and proteins to replicate their genomes, translate their proteins, and assemble into progeny virions. These projects focus on understanding the inner workings of distinct inclusion structures (termed viral factories) formed within the cellular cytoplasm during viral infection, and determining what drives the creation of these structures, and what role they play in regulation of viral RNA transcription, translation and replication during infection. Dr. Miller has also been a key player in the development of a novel protein-protein interaction technology utilizing the capacity of a single reovirus protein to form viral factory-like structures and recruit other proteins to these structures. A second project in the Miller laboratory is focused on utilizing this technology to identify and define new viral protein-protein interactions, and further, to screen for drugs or small molecules that can inhibit these interactions to identify potential anti-viral therapies. Dr. Miller’s laboratory is additionally involved in a number of projects examining the molecular mechanisms involved in influenza A virus pathogenicity and immunology in both swine and humans.