Srividya Ramachandran Email: srr15@pitt.edu Lab: Kinchington Lab My research focuses on investigating gene expression of certain HSV-1 proteins during early infection and immediately following reactivation in vivo in our mouse model with the goal of the possible development of an immune response which prevents reactivation of the virus from latency. Previous work has shown that in the mouse ocular model, latently infected ganglia retain a sustained CD8+ T cell infiltrate following corneal infection of HSV-1 and in C57Bl/6 mice, CD8+ T cells are predominantly directed to an immunodominant epitope on glycoprotein B (gB498-505). These CD8+ T cells also show markers of activation post latency, leading to the hypothesis that they are able to detect antigen during latency and then block reactivation before true late protein expression and virus production. Our first aim is to look at gene expression of specific HSV-1 proteins including glycoprotein B, glycoprotein C and ICP0 using recombinant HSV-1 which are dually fluorescent for various promoters allowing us to monitor fluorescence in situ in the trigeminal ganglia (TG) of our mouse model. The second aim of my research is to design a therapeutic vaccine using recombinant HSV-1 expressing multiple copies of the immunodominant epitope on gB driven by various promoters in an attempt to augment the immune response to HSV-1 latent infection and prevent reactivation.