Our research efforts focus on rotaviruses, which are segmented, double-stranded (ds) RNA viruses that cause diarrhea in young children and animals. During infection of a host cell, rotaviruses replicate their dsRNA genome in tandem with the early stages of virion particle assembly. We seek to better understand this replicase-assembly mechanism of rotavirus through (i) structure-guided, functional analyses of viral proteins and assembly intermediates as well as (ii) genetic analyses of wildtype and mutant rotavirus strains. We also have projects that aim to uncover rotavirus genetic diversity in nature and to elucidate selection pressures that temper viral evolution.
