Luwanika Mlera

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a double-stranded DNA virus, which infects more than 90% of the world's population. The infection is a persistent one in the form of viral latency where the virus genome is maintained with little or no virus replication. Certain triggers cause the virus to exit the latent state and enter a productive replication cycle. Research in the lab seeks to unravel how HCMV "senses" these changes in the cell environment to "decide" on entry or exiting latency.