Karla Kirkegaard

Biography

Karla Kirkegaard is Research Professor of the Department of Genetics. She studies the genetics, immunology, cell biology, and biochemistry of positive-strand RNA virus propagation.

Research Interest

For many subcellular viruses and parasites, RNA, not DNA, is the carrier of genetic information. This has several interesting consequences for the genetics and biology of the virus. Poliovirus serves as a model to increase our understanding of positive-strand RNA viruses for which no vaccine is available and which remain a significant health hazard: examples include other picornaviruses, such as rhinoviruses, coxsackieviruses and the deadly enterovirus 71 as well as more distantly related positive-strand RNA viruses such as hepatitis C and Dengue fever.