Virus infection is a dynamic process and highly dependent on the host cells. Our laboratory endeavor to understand how viruses exploit cellular machineries, such as to achieve their infection and replication. Our research focuses on the late stages of influenza virus life cycle, including virion assembly, egress and transmission between cells. These critical steps enable the genome reassortment, guarantee the formation of infective progeny virions, and release them from the host to establish new infections. We aim to elucidate the virus-host interaction in these infection steps, its kinetics, and the underlying regulatory mechanisms. To resolve the dynamic and complex infection processes, we employ an interdisciplinary approach leveraging tools from molecular virology, cell biology, advanced light/EM microscopy, and computational analyses. We hope that our research will yield new insights into the cell biology of virus infection, and thereby provide a basis for the development of future therapeutics against influenza.
