Nancy Raab-Traub

Nancy Raab-Traub, PhD, serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research program centers on elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which Epstein-Barr Virus drives oncogenesis, with specialized focus on nasopharyngeal and gastric carcinomas.

Dr. Raab-Traub's laboratory made seminal discoveries regarding EBV-encoded RNAs, identifying a novel family of highly spliced transcripts that serve as templates for 44 microRNAs. Her team demonstrated these spliced RNAs function as nuclear long non-coding RNAs and are exclusively expressed during EBV-infected tumor growth in SCID mice models. Current investigations examine the transforming capabilities of these RNAs in cell culture systems and the role of viral exosomes in transferring EBV components to HPV-infected cells, potentially influencing viral co-infection dynamics.

Her contributions to cancer virology have been formally recognized through prestigious institutional honors:

• Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022)
• Hyman L. Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009)

While the source documentation confirms her active research program within the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center infrastructure, specific details regarding graduate student mentorship, grant funding history, and laboratory team composition were not provided in the available materials.

Dr. Raab-Traub maintains her primary research operations within the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Research Center facilities, leveraging institutional resources for her investigations into viral oncogenesis and potential therapeutic interventions targeting EBV-associated malignancies.