Robert Finberg

Dr. Finberg's research is in the area of host-microbial interactions. He is working on defining cell surface proteins that control the host responses to bacteria and viruses. He is characterizing the role of CD14 and the Toll-like proteins which are "pattern recognition" proteins involved in the immune response to many different microbial antigens. In addition he is working out the pathway for viral entry into cells and how that pathway can be exploited for gene delivery. His work in infections has led him to investigate the association between viruses and cancer and to develop new methods for enhancing the immune responses to viruses to eliminate virus associated malignancies.