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Joshua C. Munger, Ph.D.

Contact Information

Phone Numbers

Office: (585) 273-4800

Fax: (585) 271-2683

Research Labs

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Locations

University of Rochester Medical Center
School of Medicine and Dentistry
601 Elmwood Ave, Box 712
Rochester, NY 14642

Faculty Appointments

Biography

Research

A major focus of our laboratory is human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a herpes virus, which is the leading cause of congenital viral infection, occurring in approximately 1% of all live births. Congenital HCMV infection results in central nervous system damage in the majority of symptomatic newborns. HCMV infection also poses a serious health risk to immunosuppressed individuals, increasing morbidity in the elderly and in patients receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy, including cancer patients, transplant recipients, and AIDS patients.
The majority of the projects in our lab study the interfaces between viruses and the host cell that determine the outcome of infection. Specifically, we focus on how viruses usurp cellular metabolic controls and subvert cellular anti-viral signaling to support productive infection. The goal of our laboratory is to increase our mechanistic understanding of these processes to identify novel avenues for therapeutic intervention that could prevent virally-associated pathogenesis.

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths globally. Anti-viral therapeutic strategies are desperately needed to attenuate SARS-CoV-2-associated disease. We have initiated a high-throughput pharmacologic screen of a unique metabolism-focused compound library to identify drugs that limit coronavirus infection in pulmonary human fibroblasts. Our preliminary data has identified several compounds that substantially inhibit coronavirus infection. Our laboratory is in the process of validating the anti-viral activity of these compounds against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, we are elucidating how coronaviruses modulate cellular metabolism to support productive infection in an attempt to identify viral metabolic vulnerabilities that might be targeted for further therapeutic development.

Publications

Journal Articles

2/11/2023
Asantewaa G, Tuttle ET, Ward NP, Kang YP, Kim Y, Kavanagh ME, Girnius N, Chen Y, Duncan R, Rodriguez K, Hecht F, Zocchi M, Smorodintsev-Schiller L, Scales TQ, Taylor K, Alimohammadi F, Sechrist ZR, Agostini-Vulaj D, Schafer XL, Chang H, Smith Z, O'Connor TN, Whelan S, Selfors LM, Crowdis J, Gray GK, Bronson RT, Brenner D, Rufini A, Dirksen RT, Hezel AF, Huber AR, Munger J, Cravatt BF, Vasiliou V, Cole CL, DeNicola GM, Harris IS. "Glutathione supports lipid abundance ." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.. 2023 Feb 11; Epub 2023 Feb 11.

1/26/2023
Goodrum F, Lowen A, Lakdawala S, Alwine J, Casadevall A, Imperiale M, Atwood W, Avgousti D, Baines J, Banfield B, Banks L, Bhaduri-McIntosh S, Bhattacharya D, Blanco-Melo D, Bloom D, Boon A, Boulant S, Brandt C, Broadbent A, Brooke C, Cameron C, Campos S, Caposio P, Chan G, Cliffe A, Coffin J, Collins K, Damania B, Daugherty M, Debbink K, DeCaprio J, Dermody T, Dikeakos J, DiMaio D, Dinglasan R, Duprex WP, Dutch R, Elde N, Emerman M, Enquist L, Fane B, Fernandez-Sesma A, Flenniken M, Frappier L, Frieman M, Frueh K, Gack M, Gaglia M, Gallagher T, Galloway D, García-Sastre A, Geballe A, Glaunsinger B, Goff S, Greninger A, Hancock M, Harris E, Heaton N, Heise M, Heldwein E, Hogue B, Horner S, Hutchinson E, Hyser J, Jackson W, Kalejta R, Kamil J, Karst S, Kirchhoff F, Knipe D, Kowalik T, Lagunoff M, Laimins L, Langlois R, Lauring A, Lee B, Leib D, Liu SL, Longnecker R, Lopez C, Luftig M, Lund J, Manicassamy B, McFadden G, McIntosh M, Mehle A, Miller WA, Mohr I, Moody C, Moorman N, Moscona A, Mounce B, Munger J, Münger K, Murphy E, Naghavi M, Nelson J, Neufeldt C, Nikolich J, O'Connor C, Ono A, Orenstein W, Ornelles D, Ou JH, Parker J, Parrish C, Pekosz A, Pellett P, Pfeiffer J, Plemper R, Polyak S, Purdy J, Pyeon D, Quinones-Mateu M, Renne R, Rice C, Schoggins J, Roller R, Russell C, Sandri-Goldin R, Sapp M, Schang L, Schmid S, Schultz-Cherry S, Semler B, Shenk T, Silvestri G, Simon V, Smith G, Smith J, Spindler K, Stanifer M, Subbarao K, Sundquist W, Suthar M, Sutton T, Tai A, Tarakanova V, tenOever B, Tibbetts S, Tompkins S, Toth Z, van Doorslaer K, Vignuzzi M, Wallace N, Walsh D, Weekes M, Weinberg J, Weitzman M, Weller S, Whelan S, White E, Williams B, Wobus C, Wong S, Yurochko A. "Virology under the Microscope-a Call for Rational Discourse." mBio.. 2023 Jan 26; :e0018823. Epub 2023 Jan 26.

12/6/2022
Moreno I, Rodríguez-Sánchez I, Schafer X, Munger J. "Human cytomegalovirus induces neuronal enolase to support virally mediated metabolic remodeling." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.. 2022 Dec 6; 119(49):e2205789119. Epub 2022 Dec 02.

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