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The laboratory of Silvia Vidal (Departments of Human Genetics, Microbiology/Immunology) investigates the molecular interactions between several human pathogenic viruses and the host innate response to virus infection using mouse genetic models.  Specifically, they address the role of activating natural killer cell receptors in both recognition of the infected cell and regulation of natural killer cell activity during cytomegalovirus infection.  Other topics of the lab are the role of type I-IFN dependent and independent mechanisms that control coxsackievirus-mediated myocarditis, and the genetic basis of the dysregulated inflammatory response leading to influenza pneumonia.  A second goal, as part of a collaborative group, is to establish mouse chemical mutagenesis and large-scale phenotyping to identify defective host resistance in all major classes of microbial pathogens as a means to provide a comprehensive understanding of the key physiologic pathways of protective immunity.