Simon is a rising senior at the University of California, Irvine, where he is majoring in Microbiology and Immunology. At UCI, he is a MARC scholar in the Drayman’s Lab, researching novel HSV-1 antagonists that block the induction of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs).
At UCLA, Simon is in Dr. Ting-Ting Wu’s lab, where he is developing a prophylactic vaccine against Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), an oncogenic virus that causes a variety of diseases including Kaposi’s sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and multicentric Castleman’s disease. There is currently no cure or vaccine. Glycoprotein B (gB) is an evolutionarily conserved fusion protein on all herpesviruses, including KSHV, and is the main fusion protein responsible for cell attachment and entry. As such, it is a prime candidate to use as a vaccine antigen. However, gB is heavily glycosylated, which is not only required for protein trafficking and folding but also can be utilized to mask epitope sites. As such, it is hard to generate a robust immune response with a wild-type gB antigen. This summer, Simon will be studying the expression and impact of selectively de-glycosylating glycoprotein B to find a highly expressed, but non-glycosylated gB mutant to be used as a vaccine antigen.
Simon would like to thank his PI, Dr. Ting-Ting Wu, his grad mentor, Pu-Lin Teng, and all the members of the Wu lab for their mentorship and support. Simon also extends his gratitude to the Amgen foundation and the UCLA Amgen program for this incredible opportunity.