George Belov

Research Interests

Positive strand RNA viruses infect all eukaryotic organisms. These viruses include such important pathogens of humans and animals as hepatitis C virus, Foot and Mouth Disease virus, poliovirus, Dengue viruses, Zika virus, rhinoviruses, and many others. The majority of pathogenic positive-strand RNA viruses still cannot be controlled with vaccines or anti-viral drugs. These viruses have small genomes coding for a limited number of proteins, thus they have to rely on simple but efficient strategies of hijacking cellular metabolism and fighting the host anti-viral defenses. Importantly, even distantly-related positive-strand RNA viruses often rely on the same cellular factors and processes for their propagation, thus providing a possibility of developing broad-spectrum anti-viral therapeutics targeting critical virus-host interactions.

Our research is focused on the investigation of mechanisms these viruses use to hijack and subvert normal cellular pathways for the development of viral replication complexes. We employ modern molecular biology and virology techniques to study the contribution of cellular factors to the replication of positive-strand RNA We are particularly interested in how these viruses disassemble elements of normal cellular membrane metabolism and then combine them into new configurations to remodel cellular membranes into viral replication organelles.

Understanding these processes will provide us with new and effective measures against those pathogens which are markedly resistant to conventional therapies.  Investigation of viral strategies of manipulating host metabolism also elucidates the intricate machinery of cellular regulatory networks which has important implications for broad areas of human health from inflammation to cancer.