Jaye Gardiner

Research/Areas of Interest

Our scientific curiosity revolves around understanding how viruses can rewire cells to change what genes are expressed and how this altered gene expression changes cellular behavior and interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM). As obligate intracellular parasites, viruses are adept at hijacking biological processes for their own replication. However, the impact of these co-opted processes on the surrounding uninfected cells and ECM, or the "viral microenvironment", and the long-term sequelae are largely unexplored. Our goal is to study these questions within the context of fibrotic diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, pancreatitis, and liver fibrosis as viral infections are frequently a cause of fibrosis and most chronic fibroses remain unresolved and result in organ failure or cancer development.

Our research can be described in the following three major themes; where projects in one theme will learn from and build on our knowledge from the others.

.Theme 1: Chromatin/transcriptional regulation of fibroblastic cells
Projects in this theme will work to investigate the interplay between ECM signaling, chromatin remodeling, and transcriptional
gene activation. In particular, we aim to answer the questions:
- How do fibroblasts maintain a chronic activation status in fibrotic diseases despite lacking in vivo. cues?
- How does the chromatin of fibroblastic cells change over the course of fibrotic disease development?
- How are the above questions affected by different ECM components?

Theme 2: Viral manipulation of the extracellular matrix
Projects in this theme work to answer the questions:
- How do virally infected cells alter the local environment they are in?
- How do changes in the microenvironment resolve or persist after a viral infection is cleared?
- Are changes in the viral microenvironment the same as other initiators of fibrotic diseases?.

Theme 3: Non-oncogenic viruses and cancer
Projects in this theme work to answer the questions:
- How do non-oncogenic viral infections affect cancer formation and metastasis?
- How do anti-viral treatments alter the microenvironment?
- What is the impact of oncolytic viruses on the surrounding microenvironment?