Paul M. Lieberman

Paul M. Lieberman is the Hillary Koprowski, M.D., Endowed Professor and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Program Leader of the Gene Expression and Regulation Program and Director of the Center for Chemical Biology and Translational Medicine at The Wistar Institute. His research focuses on viral oncogenesis, genome maintenance, and the molecular mechanisms of herpesvirus latency.

Dr. Lieberman's research interests include:

• Genome maintenance and gene expression
• Gammaherpesviruses and oncogenesis
• Telomere Biology, Chromatin structure and genome stability
• Transcription regulation

His work primarily investigates how human tumor viruses like EBV and KSHV establish latent infection and contribute to cancer development. Recent publications show a strong focus on viral protein EBNA1, its role in maintaining viral episomes, and the development of inhibitors targeting this protein for potential therapeutic applications. His research spans virology, epigenetics, cancer biology, and drug development, with increasing connections to neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis where EBV appears to play a role.

Dr. Lieberman has published extensively on viral latency mechanisms, with significant contributions to understanding how viral genomes persist as nuclear minichromosomes and how telomere biology intersects with viral infection. His work on TERRA (telomere repeat-containing RNA) and viral genome stability has been particularly influential in the field.

He mentors several graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, contributing to the training of the next generation of virologists and molecular biologists. His laboratory employs a range of techniques from molecular biology to high-throughput screening to investigate viral persistence mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets.