Matthew Murray
Illuminating the role of SUMO signalling in neuronal pathogenesis of human cytomegalovirus
Matthew Murray, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at University of Copenhagen, has received a Lundbeck Foundation Postdoc grant worth DKK 2,400,000.
About the project
Viruses manipulate the hostile host cell environment in order to replicate, and as such they can be used as powerful tools to understand cell biology. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a ubiquitous pathogen that causes neurological damage in neonates. It hijacks and manipulates many aspects of cellular function, including protein abundance and post-translational modifications such as SUMOylation, which regulates the function of numerous proteins and has a key role in cellular responses to stress (e.g. viral infection). As CMV remains an unresolved clinical challenge, with links to glioma, greater insights into the molecular basis of the CMV lifecycle are instrumental for future treatment options.
Given the emerging key importance of SUMO-mediated signalling in the CMV lifecycle, this project sets out to comprehensively quantify, for the first time, the global changes in protein SUMOylation occurring during replication of CMV in neuronal cells, using cutting-edge quantitative mass-spectrometry techniques in concert with detailed functional studies of identified SUMO-regulated proteins and pathways in CMV neuronal pathogenesis. It seeks also to understand the role of FAM111A and B, key SUMO-regulated proteins with putative antiviral functions, in the lifecycle of CMV. Collectively, this study will provide important system-wide and targeted molecular insights into the interaction of CMV with neuronal cells, with potential implications for future treatment strategies.
