Viruses are extraordinary biological entities. Despite harboring minimal genetic information, they wield the ability to execute complex processes, hijack cellular machinery, and triumph over their hosts. Understanding how their genomes operate and the trade-offs inherent in their structure can reveal ‘design flaws’ that may be exploited for the development of vaccines and therapies.

Approaching fundamental questions in virology through the lens of systems biology offers a new perspective and the potential to address long-standing questions in the field. Our laboratory works at the intersection of virology, synthetic biology, immunology, and bioinformatics to bioengineer high-throughput methods to illuminate biological processes in hundreds of human-pathogenic viruses.. Through this systematic view, we seek to answer fundamental questions in virology: what is the true coding capacity of viral genomes? How do viruses propagate so effectively while escaping immune detection? and how do viruses adapt their genomes to replicate in both the host and the vector, despite being separated by millions of years of evolution? 

Current projects in our laboratory aim to demystify the dark proteome of human viruses. We characterize the functions of non-canonical ORFs in the viral life cycle and antiviral immunity, including their roles in immune recognition, gene expression regulation, and dual-host adaptation.