Dr Emma Poole

Over the last 20 years I have been studying the herpesvirus Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in the Department of Medicine in the group of John Sinclair. Specifically I have been investigating the molecular mechanism of a phase of the lifecycle termed ‘latency’ whereby undifferentiated cells are infected, but non-productively, until the cells are terminally differentiated. To address this I used a multi-omics approach (transcriptomics, proteomics etc) to identify virally induced cellular changes. We have since applied these findings to designing potential therapeutics which may be used to treat human tissue (stem cells and organs) prior to transplantation.

On the 1st November 2023 I will be commencing an independent position in the Department of Pathology. In this post I intend to continue these lines of research and I am also interested in understanding HCMV in other clinical settings, such as placental transfer to the newborn where it causes significant disease and is a significant burden to the NHS.