Jason Smith, Ph.D.

The Smith lab is primarily focused on understanding the role of defensins in viral pathogenesis. Defensins comprise a class of antimicrobial peptides with broad antibacterial activity; however, their effects on viral infection, immunity, and pathogenesis, particularly for nonenveloped viruses, are less well understood. Using a variety of approaches from virology, cell biology, biochemistry, structural biology, and genetics, our work is focused on understanding the interaction of defensins with human adenovirus and human papillomavirus in molecular detail to determine general principals of defensin-mediated neutralization of nonenveloped viral infection. We are also interested in using animal models of enteric viral diseases to understand the role of defensins in antiviral immunity in vivo. Finally, we have recently adopted a new 3D intestinal enteroid culture methodology to examine the interaction of viruses and bacteria with host cells.