Bernard Moss, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief, Laboratory of Viral Diseases
Chief, Genetic Engineering Section

Bernie Moss received his M.D. from the NYU School of Medicine, interned at the Children's Hospital Medical Center (Boston), and then earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became interested in viruses after joining the NIH and is well known for studies on the cap structure of mRNAs, regulation of gene expression, replication cycle of poxviruses, virus defense molecules, and development and application of virus vectors.

Dr. Moss has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Dickson Prize for Medical Research, the Invitrogen Eukaryotic Expression Award, the ICN International Prize in Virology, the Taylor International Prize in Medicine, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, Fellow of the AAAS, and president of the American Society for Virology.

Dr. Moss is currently an editor of Virology and a member of the editorial boards of  Journal of Virology, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Advances in Virus Research, and the NIH Catalyst.  He is an adjunct professor at George Washington University and the University of Maryland.

Description of Research Program

The goals are to determine the mechanisms used by viruses to infect cells, express and replicate their genomes, assemble infectious particles, and evade the host immune response. Basic information obtained from these studies is used to design antiviral agents and live and subunit recombinant vaccines. In addition, viruses are engineered as expression vectors for biotechnology.

Poxviruses have provided unique opportunities to combine molecular, genetic, microscopic, and immunologic approaches to achieve many of the above goals. Recent studies have also been directed to the characterization and testing of candidate vaccines for human and simian immunodeficiency viruses.

Movies of Intracellular Virion Movement

Research Group Members

From left to right: Camilo Ansarah-Sobrinho, Graduate Student; Tamara Nun; Matloob Husain, Postdoctoral Fellow; Patricia Szajner, Graduate Student; Brian Ward, Postdoctoral Fellow; Bernard Moss, Section Head; Silvio Calderara; Joanna Shisler; George Katsafanas, Biologist; Maria Caeiro; Alonzo Garcia; Yan Xiang; Tatiana (Senkevich) Koonina, Staff Scientist; Linda Wyatt, Senior Research Assistant; Robert Center, Postdoctoral Fellow; Arban Domi, Postdoctoral Fellow; Patricia Earl, Staff Scientist; Koji Ishii; Christine White; Andrea Weisberg, Microbiologist

Not Pictured: Jeffrey Americo, Biologist; Norman Cooper, Technician; Jennifer Dowd, Biologist; Jerry Sisler, Microbiologist; Christiana Fogg, Graduate Student; Dev Chandran, Postdoctoral Fellow; Flavio da Fonseca, Postdoctoral Fellow; Frank De Silva, Postdoctoral Fellow; Susan Parrish, Postdoctoral Fellow; Wolfgang Resch, Postdoctoral Fellow; Shlomo Lustig, Visiting Scientist

Selected Publications

(View list in PubMed.)

Garcia AD, Otero J, Lebowitz J, Schuck P, Moss B. Quaternary  structure and cleavage specificity of a poxvirus holliday junction resolvase. J Biol Chem. 2006 Apr 28;281(17):11618-26.

Chen Z, Earl P, Americo J, Damon I, Smith SK, Zhou YH, Yu F, Sebrell A, Emerson S, Cohen G, Eisenberg RJ, Svitel J, Schuck P, Satterfield W, Moss B, Purcell R. Chimpanzee/human mAbs to vaccinia virus B5 protein neutralize vaccinia and smallpox viruses and protect mice against vaccinia virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Feb 7;103(6):1882-7. 

Parrish S, Moss B. Characterization of a vaccinia virus mutant with a deletion of the D10R gene encoding a putative negative regulator of gene expression. J Virol. 2006 Jan;80(2):553-61. 

Moss B. Poxvirus entry and membrane fusion. Virology. 2006 Jan 5;344(1):48-54. Review. 

Ojeda S, Senkevich TG, Moss B. Entry of vaccinia virus and cell-cell fusion require a highly conserved cysteine-rich membrane protein encoded by the A16L gene. J Virol. 2006 Jan;80(1):51-61. 

Senkevich TG, Ojeda S, Townsley A, Nelson GE, Moss B. Poxvirus multiprotein entry-fusion complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Dec 20;102(51):18572-7.  

Supplemental Videos

Special Interest Groups: Cell Biology, Virology, Vaccine Research

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