Faculty

thomas-haugen@uiowa.edu Voice: 319-339-0581

THOMAS H. HAUGEN, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor and Director Veterans Administration Medical Center    Clinical Laboratories Pathology - 113 Veterans Affairs Medical Center Highway 6 West Iowa City, IA 52246 M.D. The University of Iowa, 1983 Pathology Residency, The University of Iowa, 1983-89 Microbiology Fellowship, The University of Iowa, 1989-90

Papillomaviruses induce benign epithelial proliferation (e.g., warts) of the skin and mucosa. Individual papilloma-virus types are associated with benign lesions whereas others are found in proliferative lesions with a low or even considerable malignant potential. Papillomavirus sequences are detectable in more than 90% of invasive cervical neoplasms.

The papillomavirus genome is small compared to many viruses and is a good model system for study of viral-host cell interactions. Studies in our lab focus on the viral and cellular factors that regulate papillomaviral gene expression in the infected cell. One important viral factor, the E2 protein, is a strong activator of transcription and is targeted to promoters by a sequence-specific DNA binding domain. This protein has several other regions that are conserved between viral subtypes and likely represent other functional domains with activation activity, and which may interact with other viral or cellular transcriptional factors. Using molecular methodologies, work is ongoing to dissect these regions and test for novel functional properties with in vivo and in vitro transcriptional assays.