Eric Hunter, Ph.D.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar

• Ph.D., Imperial Cancer Research Fund & Brunel University of England, 1972
• B.Sc., University of Birmingham, England (Honors)

Research Interests: The research of Dr. Hunter's laboratory has centered on elucidating the virus-cell interactions involved in the assembly and entry of retroviruses. Understanding how the independently targeted capsid and glycoprotein molecules are transported to the assembly site(s), what cellular pathways are utilized, and what roles cell-and virus-encoded gene products play in this process, is a major focus of his research. Because the major viral components traverse distinct pathways, Dr. Hunter's laboratory has characterized the factors that influence intracellular transport and assembly of both viral capsids and the viral glycoproteins. He has also examined the signals and mechanisms that operate to include the viral glycoproteins into a budding virion and mediate fusion. More recently, this information on glycoprotein structure function has been applied to studies of the virologic correlates of HIV tranmission in an African setting.