Luis M. Schang

Biography

Baker Institute for Animal Health Department of Microbiology and Immunology Professor of Chemical Virology Baker Institute for Animal Health 235 Hungerford Hill Road Ithaca, NY 14853 Department of Microbiology and Immunology Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

Research Interest

Animals and humans alike suffer from viral infections, and new viruses continue to emerge on the scene year after year. To learn about viral diseases, Institute Director Dr. Luis Schang uses small molecules with drug-like properties to probe the ways viruses cause infections. He is most interested in finding common features among the many viruses that cause disease in animals or humans. With his research, Schang is learning more and more about how viruses, despite their tiny size, make big problems in health. He’s also uncovering important information on how to use only a few drugs to fight infections with many different viruses, or even stop them before they start. Learning how viruses enter cells. Any virus – from Zika virus to herpesviruses – needs to enter cells to cause disease. Although every virus takes a different approach, there are some common tools that all or many viruses use for this microscopic act of breaking and entering. To identify these shared approaches, Schang and his team are testing different types of chemical compounds on a broad array of different viruses to see whether they have an effect on the ability of these viruses to enter cells. This information helps us understand viruses and the way the cause infections, and it also points the way toward new antiviral drugs. Compounds that work against a variety of different viruses are good candidates for the development of broad-spectrum antivirals, a possibility that Schang pursues whenever they discover a potentially useful compound.