Dr. Zsolt Toth, Department of Oral Biology, received a four-year, $792,000 Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society for his project entitled “Controlling the establishment of oncogenic herpesviral infection” (132907-RSG-18-221-01-MPC).
An estimated 15-20% of human cancers involve viral infections; Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is one of the seven known human tumor viruses. Currently, there are no KSHV specific vaccines or drugs that can halt KSHV-associated cancers or KSHV infection.
Dr. Toth states, “our findings will help better understand how a human oncogenic virus can hijack and repurpose human factors in order to hide in the infected cells, which is the initial step for the life-long infection and toward virus-induced oncogenesis. Our results can facilitate new therapeutic intervention for inhibition of persistent KSHV infection and KSHV-associated cancers.”
Dr. Toth will be working with Co-I Dr. Bernadett Papp, Oral Biology, on this project.
Congratulations, Dr. Toth!