Department of BioMolecular Sciences
The University of Mississippi

Dr. Ritesh Tandon

Posted on: September 18th, 2017 by dnoonan
Joint Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
 

Education:

  • PhD, 2005, University of Georgia 
  • Postdoctoral, 2006, Johns Hopkins University
  • Postdoctoral, 2012, Emory University

Research Interests:

The research in Dr. Tandon’s laboratory currently focuses on three different aspects of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) maturation. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a herpes virus that can act as a severe human pathogen in AIDS patients, organ transplant recipients and other immunocompromised individuals. At present, there are no vaccines or effective drugs to treat or contain CMV infection. The development of potential antivirals requires detailed knowledge of the molecular events involved in virus replication. A good antiviral target is the virus assembly and maturation process, a complex series of events that results in the production of infectious virus particles within infected host cells. We have reported critical viral and hostfactors that are important for HCMV maturation. Current research is aimed towards providing a detailed understanding of CMV maturation events that will impact the development of novel therapeutics to counter CMV infection with a possible conserved theme across all herpes viruses.