Stacia Phillips

E-mail: phil0500@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Degree received:
B.S., Microbiology, University of Iowa, 2001

Honors and Awards:

• Graduate School Block Fellowship, Fall Semester 2007

Thesis research:

Human cytomegalovirus is a large enveloped virus of the betaherpesvirus family. Research in the Bresnahan lab focuses primarily on the function of the viral tegument, a highly organized proteinaceous structure located between the capsid and the envelope of mature virus particles. Proteomic approaches have been used to determine the composition of HCMV virus particles, including viral capsid and tegument proteins, envelope glycoproteins, and host-derived proteins that remain associated with purified HCMV. My project is to identify physical interactions between these virion proteins using a yeast two-hybrid screen and co-immunoprecipitation analysis. We expect to identify novel protein-protein interactions that play roles in essential process in the viral life cycle such as packaging, tegumentation, envelopment, or egress.