PhD student Dina Tekle publishes a research article in PNAS

Biological Chemistry PhD student Dina Tekle, her mentor Elliott SoRelle (Microbiology and Immunology), and U-M colleagues Craig Dobry (Microbiology and Immunology) and Jonathan Sexton (Medicinal Chemistry, Internal Medicine) provide new insights into Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) biology in research recently published in PNAS. The team used single-cell high-content screening (HCS) and morphologic pseudotime analyses to reconstruct host-virus dynamics from fixed cells. Results from their study of EBV reactivation include:

• Differential responses to physiologic lytic stimuli and clinically relevant drugs observed
• Quantitative morphologic metrics of treatment-dependent responses and lytic-mediated chromatin reorganization obtained
• Spatiotemporally dysregulated DNA damage responses (DDR) identified in lytic cells via coordinated changes in nuclear structure, DNA synthesis, viral lytic proteins, and double-stranded break DDR factors

The researchers expect their approach will support high-throughput single-cell virology and be applicable to other intracellular pathogens and cellular dynamics for which live-cell imaging is challenging or technically intractable.

Research article in PNAS

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