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| Name |
Diamond, Michael S. |
| Location
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Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis |
| Primary Field
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Microbial Biology |
| Secondary Field
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Immunology and Inflammation |
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 Research Interests
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The Diamond laboratory investigates the molecular basis of infection and disease of globally emerging RNA viruses with a focus on the interface between pathogenesis and host immunity. His group studies positive-stranded RNA viruses from three important classes that infect humans: flaviviruses, alphaviruses, and coronaviruses. His laboratory develops and uses mouse models to identify mechanisms of viral immune evasion and host immune factors that restrict virus infection in different tissues. His group uses CRISPR-Cas9 screens to identify novel receptors required by viruses for entry, infection, tropism, and pathogenesis. His laboratory also has generated, characterized, and mapped thousands of mouse and human antibodies against flaviviruses (West Nile, Dengue, Zika, Powassan, yellow fever, and Japanese encephalitis viruses) alphaviruses (chikungunya, Mayaro, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, and Western equine encephalitis viruses), and coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2) and studied their structure-function relationships to neutralization and Fc effector functions as well as their ability to prevent or treat infection and disease. His group developed mouse models of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and used them to advance novel antibody-based therapeutics and mucosal vaccines, which are approved or in human clinical trials. His laboratory also investigates how trans-kingdom interactions (helminth co-infection, bacterial microbiota, and constituent metabolites) link with innate and adaptive immunity to modulate systemic viral infection and disease pathogenesis. |
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