Interview with Dr. Diane Griffin: Mechanisms of viral RNA persistence

Dr. Diane Griffin is the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a professor of infectious diseases and of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her team studies RNA viruses such as alphaviruses and measles virus to clarify the mechanisms by which they interact with the host immune system. Importantly her lab also studies the persistence of these RNA viruses. In other words, they study the mechanisms by which a range of RNA viruses or their genetic material (their RNA backbones) can persist in host tissue or body fluids for long periods of time after the resolution of acute infection. This knowledge is incredibly important for the study of LongCovid - since a growing number of studies have found that SARS-CoV-2 RNA and protein can persist in patient samples for months after initial illness.