Antiviral defence mechanisms: small RNAs versus interferon pathway

Sara is an RNA biologist who focuses on understanding the control of the innate immune response in mammalian cells, particularly the cellular responses to dsRNA, which is a common intermediate of viral replication. Sara's main interests are to understand from the molecular and cellular level how differentiated and pluripotent cells employ different mechanisms to fight viral infections. These different cellular models will be used to study the cross-talk between the interferon and the small RNA pathway as two alternative antiviral mechanisms.