*Dissertation Defense Announcement:
 To:  The George Mason University Community*
 
 *Jeremy Kelly
 PhD Biosciences Candidate*
 *Date:   Friday, January 15, 2010
 Time:   10:00 a.m. 
 Place:  George Mason University, Prince William campus, Discovery Hall Auditorium 
 
 Dissertation Chair: Dr. Yuntao Wu
 
 Title: **"HIV Initiates Multiple Signaling Cascades Required for Effective Replication"**


 *A copy of the dissertation is on reserve in the Johnson Center Library, Fairfax campus.  The doctoral project will not be read at the meeting,  but should be read in advance. *
 
*All members of the George Mason University community are invited to attend.*
 
 
            ABSTRACT

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infects lymphocytes by binding to CD4 and either the CXCR4 or CCR5 receptor. Signaling initiated by these receptors in response to the virus was originally found to be unnecessary for viral infection.  However, recent work by our lab has demonstrated that in resting CD4 T cells CXCR4 signaling is necessary to overcome cortical actin restriction.  Here we show that multiple signaling cascades are not only initiated by HIV and CD4/CXCR4 signaling, but that this signaling can impact viral replication in non-resting cells. We specifically identify the JAK/STAT pathway as a necessary component of early viral transcription; which has
implications for not only novel therapeutics but also for understanding how we view viral interactions with the immune system.

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