Alexander Price

Alexander Price, Ph.D. serves as an Assistant Professor in the Genome Regulation and Cell Signaling Program within the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center at The Wistar Institute, a position he assumed in August 2023. Previously, the program was known as the Gene Expression and Regulation Program until its renaming in 2024.

Price earned his B.S. in Genetics and Cell Biology from Washington State University before completing his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University in 2016. He then pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Price's research focuses on how DNA viruses co-opt and manipulate cellular RNA processing pathways, with particular emphasis on how viral genomes are controlled during infection. His laboratory investigates three core questions: 1) How nuclear dsRNA is sensed and responded to during viral infection; 2) How DNA viruses spatially regulate RNA transcription and processing; and 3) How herpesviruses exploit RNA processing. His work has significant implications for understanding viral pathogenesis, innate immunity, and potential therapeutic targets for viral diseases and cancer.

The Price Laboratory has identified how viruses balance the ability to produce diverse RNAs from limited coding capacity while preventing the formation of non-self RNAs that trigger immune responses. His research has revealed critical insights into adenovirus RNA splicing, viral evasion of host immune responses, and the role of RNA modifications in viral replication.

Price leads a research team that includes postdoctoral fellows Alison Yu and Molly Patterson, graduate student Lorenzo Serra from UniBO, and research assistant Claire O'Brien. His laboratory is actively recruiting additional researchers to advance their work on viral RNA biology and host-pathogen interactions.