Zhe Ma,

Fun Fact: I believe that alone we can do so little—but, together, we can do so much. I’m always grateful for suggestions and collaborative opportunities. Our lab aims to dissect innate immune responses and viral tumor development for the sake of identifying potential targets and strategies for viral cancer treatment. Our long-term goals are to better understand KSHV cancers and develop potential KSHV cancer treatment or vaccines. Our immediate goals are to understand how viral proteins regulate the cGAS-STING pathway and how to develop potential KSHV cancer therapy by targeting these viral proteins. Specifically, we are focused on detailed mechanisms of cGAS-STING signaling regulation by KSHV viral proteins; the role of KSHV viral proteins on KSHV pathogenesis in vitro and in vivo; and screening for novel cGAS-STING pathway agonists, testing their efficacy using PEL based xenograft mouse model. We are also exploring other signaling pathways involved in KSHV infection and KSHV cancer progression. Particularly, we aim to identify viral regulators responsible for modulating some of these pathways, and further study their mechanism and roles in KSHV cancer development.