Laimonis Laimins, PhD
Professor, Microbiology-Immunology; Feinberg School of Medicine
Research Program
Link
Cancer-Focused Research
My studies have focused on investigating the life cycle of high-risk human papillomaviruses, which are the causative agents of most anogenital and many oral cancers. HPVs link their life cycles to epithelial differentiation and our work has identified many important mechanisms regulating viral pathogenesis. My laboratory modified tissue culture methods to study the differentiation-dependent life cycle of high-risk HPVs and was the first to grow infectious high-risk HPV virions using biopsy-derived cell lines.