Michael Ferenczy
Year started program: 2004
Program name: Molecular Virology And Microbiology
2002 - B.S.E., Chemical Engineering, Tufts University

When searching for a graduate school, I was looking for a program with great funding and a large medical campus that would allow me a range of options on which to focus my research. I knew I was interested in infectious disease, but was unsure on whether I should join an immunology or microbiology program. One of the real strengths of the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program is that it allows students with a defined interest to delve right into their passion, while giving others a chance to experience several different programs and laboratory environments in the first year. After rotating through labs which focused on vaccine development, statistical genetics, immunology, or molecular virology, I joined the Molecular Virology and Microbiology program.

I am now working on my thesis research in the lab of Dr. Neal DeLuca. The lab focuses on the regulation of transcription and DNA replication of Herpes Simplex Virus. My research focuses on the epigenetic control of transcription from quiescent HSV genomes. I am using a cell culture model of HSV latency and techniques such as chromatin immunoprecipitation to examine the mechanism by which HSV gene expression is silenced and the effects of viral proteins on viral chromatin structure. This research gives us insight into the mechanisms of viral gene expression, as well as innate cellular defenses against viruses and, more broadly, eukaryotic transcriptional control.

Ferenczy, M.W. (2007). “Prophylactic vaccine strategies and the potential of therapeutic vaccines against herpes simplex virus.” Curr Pharm Des 13 (19): 1975-88. Ferenczy, M.W. and N.A. DeLuca (2009). “Epigenetic modulation of gene expression from quiescent HSV genomes.” J Virol. In Press.

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