A virologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine has been awarded the prestigious 2008 Pew Scholars Program award. Felicia Goodrum, who works in the Department of Immunobiology, won the award for her work on latency in virus infections.

Courtesy of University of Arizona

Goodrum

The award is worth $60,000 for four years. The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences supports young investigators of outstanding promise in the basic and clinical sciences relevant to the advancement of human health.

Goodrum’s team is doing research on how a virus persists within the human body. They are studying a member of the herpes family called cytomegalovirus and how it infects humans and then lays low for many years without causing disease.

Regarding their research, Goodrum says, “We’re pushing the envelope. We will use genetic and cellular models and techniques for manipulating the virus that weren’t available in the past.”