Ravi Mahalingam

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA

Currently, my laboratory is involved in identification of cell types that transport varicella to skin and ganglia during varicella. During the past 10 years, I have been characterizing the phenotype of the T-cells that respond to varicella reactivation and have been identifying signaling molecules that recruit T cells to ganglia. Because VZV and SVV are highly species-specific, my laboratory is also involved in the preparation of a VZV-SVV chimeric virus to enable direct studies of VZV infection in primates and to help identify specific regions of the VZV and SVV genomes that are responsible for species specificity.