Virology Nexus Symposium

Keynote Speakers

Jim VanEtten, PhD, Professor

James (Jim) Van Etten grew up in central Illinois and received his BA degree in biology in 1960 at Carleton College and PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Illinois in 1965. After spending a year as a postdoc in the Department of Genetics at the University of Pavia, Italy as a National Science Foundation Fellow, he joined the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 1967, where he was hired as a fungal physiologist and biochemist. He is currently finishing his 60^th year at UNL. He was active in setting up the Nebraska Center for Virology in the early 2000’s. His early research involved studying fungal spore germination, specifically how the spore goes from essentially no protein, RNA and DNA synthesis to rapid syntheses in a couple of hours. He also worked with Dr. Anne Vidaver on characterizing the unusual bacterial phage phi 6. Phi 6 was the first phage to have a segmented-dsRNA genome and the second phage to have a lipid envelope. For many years it was the only known virus to have both a dsRNA genome and a lipid envelope. About 45 years ago his laboratory discovered the first member pf what is now an ever-expanding family of large dsDNA viruses (called Phycodnaviridae) that infect eukaryotic algae. Subsequently, his laboratory has investigated a wide range of topics associated with the molecular biology, biochemistry, structure, ecology, genetics, physiology, and bioinformatics of plaque-forming viruses infect certain unicellular, chlorella-like green algae. Chloroviruses are found in freshwater from all over the world and they have many unexpected and interesting properties, One property is that at the time the chloroviruses were discovered they had more genes than any other known virus, containing as many as 450 protein-encoding genes including many not previously seen in other viruses, e.g. genes that encode DNA restriction and modification enzymes, hyaluronan and chitin biosynthetic enzymes, polyamine biosynthetic enzymes, ion channel and ion transport forming proteins and enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism.

Howard Gendelman, MD, Professor

Howard E. Gendelman is an American physician-scientist specializing in infectious diseases and neuroscience, best known for his pioneering work at the intersection of neuroimmunology and pharmacology to address viral infections and neurodegenerative disorders. He serves as the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska. His key contributions include demonstrating that HIV dementia is a reversible metabolic disorder caused by brain immune dysregulation, leading to innovative therapeutics that prevent, slow, or reverse neural damage from infectious and degenerative disorders.

Invited Speakers

Wendy Maury, PhD, Professor

Research in the Maury lab at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicina seeks to understand the interaction of enveloped viruses with the host. Studies focus on virus entry, cell tropism and innate host immune responses to virus infection. Using a variety of different tissues, we investigate how the cellular environment alters these interactions. Through studies with filoviruses, we have identified a novel set of cell surface receptors that interact with lipids in viral membranes and we continue to explore the cellular biology of these interactions as well as the pathological consequences. An appreciation of the cellular attachment factors, receptors, internalization pathways and fusion events used by viruses to enter cells provides an avenue for the development of antiviral therapies.

Anna Fagre, PhD, DVM, MPH, Assistant Professor

Anna Fagre, PhD, DVM, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She earned her PhD in Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology from Colorado State University, along with a DVM, and completed an MPH through the Colorado School of Public Health. She received her BA from Wartburg College.

Dr. Fagre is a veterinarian with training in epidemiology, classical virology, and diagnostic microbiology. Her research integrates field- and lab-based approaches to understand how pathogens are transmitted between hosts, how they persist in the environment, and which intrinsic and extrinsic factors shape host immunity and infection outcomes. Her current work emphasizes arboviral ecology, host–ectoparasite–pathogen relationships, and immune mechanisms that modulate susceptibility to viral infection within a One Health framework.

Lindsey Crawford, PhD, Assistant Professor

Dr. Lindsey Crawford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is also a member of the Nebraska Center for Virology and the Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication. Dr. Crawford obtained her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from SUNY Upstate Medical University, where she studied HTLV-1 with Dr. Gerold Feuer and KSHV with Dr. Charles Hwang. She moved to Oregon Health Sciences University for postdoctoral work with Dr. Jay Nelson focused on HCMV and then continued this work as a staff scientist at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute before moving to UNL in 2021.

The Crawford lab is broadly interested in how viruses control hematopoietic stem cell fate (virus-host interactions at the foundation of immune system development). Current projects focus on how chronic viruses, including the common herpesvirus HCMV, infect hematopoietic stem cells and control differentiation, and the interplay of these cellular pathways with viral with latency and reactivation. The lab uses a combination of molecular virology and biochemistry approaches with new stem cell and humanized mouse models to address fundamental questions in virology, immunology, and stem cell biology.

Amanda Dudek, PhD, Assistant Professor

Amanda M. Dudek, PhD is an Assistant Professor and Microbiology Endowed Scholar in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Virology from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

Dr. Dudek’s lab uses precise genetic engineering in primary immune cells and hematopoietic stem cells to understand virus-host interactions and innate immune control of viral replication. Her group focuses on applying CRISPR/Cas9 alongside viral vector systems (including lentivirus and AAV) to interrogate early steps in HIV-1 infection and to leverage natural human genetic variation to explain differences in infection outcomes and immune control across individuals.

W. Allen Miller, PhD, Professor

W. Allen Miller, is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology & Microbiology at Iowa State University. He earned his BA in Biology at Carleton College, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied cell-free replication of plant RNA viruses. In 1984 he moved to the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia where he sequenced plant viral genomes. In 1988 Dr. Miller joined Iowa State University, where was greeted by graduate student Lou Mansky asking to work in his lab. Dr. Miller’s research has focused on control of plant RNA viral gene expression, translation and replication, satellite RNA ribozymes, characterizing new genes hidden in viral genomes, discovering plant and insect viral genomes by metagenomics. Professor Miller teaches virology and plant virology. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and of the American Phytopathological Society, was a Fulbright Fellow and Gutenberg Chair at the CNRS Institute for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Strasbourg in 2012-13, and Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge in 2024. Recently, he served as plant and insect virus editor for the Journal of Virology.

Joaquin Caceres, PhD, Assistant Professor

Dr. Caceres is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine (VMPM), College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and his PhD in Microbiology from Universidad de Chile in 2017. His PhD work focused on non-canonical mechanisms of mRNA translation used by retroviruses, hepatitis C, and hantaviruses. In 2018, he began his postdoctoral training at the University of Georgia (UGA), and in 2022, he was promoted to Assistant Research Scientist (non-tenure-track faculty). His research at UGA focused on the understanding of the pathogenesis, antigenicity, viral-host interactions, and transmission of influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, he participated in the development and testing of novel vaccine platforms and antivirals. In 2025, he moved to Iowa State University to start his own independent group. The Caceres Lab employs reverse genetics, multiple molecular biology approaches, and ex vivo and in vivo models to dissect mechanisms that modulate the pathogenesis and viral-host interactions of influenza and other viruses relevant to animals and humans.

Nicole Sexton, PhD, Assistant Professor

Dr. Nicole R. Sexton is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a member of the Nebraska Center for Virology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL). Dr. Sexton earned an AS in Biology from Santa Rosa Junior College, a BS in Biology from the University of California-Santa Cruz and a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Vanderbilt University. After studying coronavirus replication fidelity and evolution at Vanderbilt, Dr. Sexton transitioned to investigating arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) as a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University. Dr. Sexton’s research program at UNL focuses on arbovirus-host interactions, specifically identifying differences between mosquito-borne arbovirus interactions across mosquito and vertebrate host species and evolutionary strategies that arboviruses use to maintain this cyclic life cycle. The overall aims of this research program are to identify arbovirus trade-offs resulting from differing antiviral mechanisms present between arthropod and vertebrate hosts that can be exploited to develop interventions against human pathogens that result in high disease burdens worldwide. Dr. Sexton’s research utilizes computational comparisons across virus families with different host usage patterns to develop hypotheses that are then investigated through the cross use of molecular genetics, virology, and evolutionarily techniques paired with in vitro infections of relevant host species. Much of this work is focused on the role of the mosquito vector in maintaining arbovirus cyclic lifecycles and understanding how to disrupt those interactions.

Alex Kleinpeter, PhD, Assistant Professor

Dr. Alex Kleinpeter is an Assistant Professor and Microbiology Endowed Scholar in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He received his PhD from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and completed his postdoctoral training in the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Kleinpeter’s laboratory uses an interdisciplinary approach combining molecular biology, biochemistry, and structural biology techniques to elucidate the basic biological mechanisms driving HIV-1 assembly, maturation, and acquired resistance to antiretroviral drugs.