Anatomy of Infection | Illumination

Anatomy of Infection. Story by Rhituparna Chatterjee.

Using this technique, Johnson and his fellow researchers found that not all the Gag-GFP made their way into new viruses, and that young human immunodeficiency viruses took turns leaving the cell, one by one, often through the same spot on the plasma membrane.

Johnson published the finding in the October 2005 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At least two different research groups have adopted his technique, one to study viral assembly and the other to look at viral entry into host cells.

It was an important discovery, although Johnson warns that more research is needed before he can prove this to be the general mechanism for HIV to exit from the host cells. Still, Johnson's former boss was impressed.

"That's entirely his own creation," says Volker Vogt of Johnson's imaging combination. "And it is going to go places, I can say that."

After finishing his six-year stint with Vogt last year, Johnson moved to MU to start his own lab. He says, only half-joking, that the decision to move to Columbia was predestined: Johnson was born in Columbia 34 years ago, on the very same floor that today houses his academic department. "Perhaps it's all just imprinting," he laughs. "Just like the salmon do it."

Despite a new laboratory to set up and new team members to train, Johnson is still able to spend time at the lab bench. He is currently designing a large-scale study to screen molecules for their ability to stop HIV from assembling inside the infected cells. At this point, he says, it is still a "pie in the sky idea," but worth a try. Johnson is also expanding his repertoire of viruses, from HIV to Murine leukemia virus, human T-lymphotropic virus and others. "I am a strong believer in studying multiple related viruses at once when it is possible," he says. "We are trying to figure out riddles. It's like trying to solve the Rosetta Stone. If scholars had focused only on the Greek writing or only on the Egyptian [demotic] writing, then we never would have learned how to read hieroglyphics. It is exactly that way for the viruses."

At MU's Life Sciences Center, Johnson is part of a core group of virologists. One of them, MU associate professor Donald Burke, says that he knew and appreciated Johnson's work well before he joined the MU faculty.

"There are many people trying to understand how viruses do these things," says Burke. "People who are doing it best are applying creative techniques, and Marc's approach is creative. He is one of the small number of people at the front."

Others agree. Last year Johnson was one of a select group of researchers who received the 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The California-based organization makes grants to promote research in chemistry and the life sciences, particularly research using instruments and materials that may open up new avenues of scientific exploration.

The support was a welcome vote of confidence, Johnson says, one that affirms that his work and the work of his colleagues may one day help tame some of the world's worst viruses. "The exciting thing," Johnson says, "is that not only can we learn more about how HIV behaves but, since many viruses appear to assemble at the cell surface in similar ways, what we're investigating here has relevance to researchers studying influenza, rabies, measles, Ebola, and even the bird flu."

Published by the Office of Research.