Lavinia Gonzalez Aparicio
Assistant Professor of Biology-Microbiology
Contact +1 630 637 5185
ljgonzalezaparicio@noctrl.edu
Office Hours
WSC234 M W F: 10:30am - 11:30am T R: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
My interests include understanding how viruses interact with the cells they infect. Viruses are obligate parasites that need the cell to propagate and "survive" in nature. Naturally, viruses have evolved many mechanisms to "hijack" the cell's resources to their own benefit. Our understanding of these mechanisms has been an important pillar to develop antiviral therapies to fight off human viruses. My lab lies at the intersection between cell biology and virology, using CRISPR-Cas13 technology to study how the model Sendai virus interacts with mammalian cell lines, both at the RNA and protein level.
Selected Scholarship
González Aparicio LJ, Yang Y, Hackbart M, López CB (2023) Copy-back viral genomes induce a cellular stress response that interferes with viral protein expression without affecting antiviral immunity. PLoS Biol 21(11): e3002381. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002381
González Aparicio LJ,López CB, Felt SA, 2022. A Virus Is a Community: Diversity within Negative-Sense RNA Virus Populations. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev86:e00086-21.https://doi.org/10.1128/mmbr.00086-21
Courses Taught
BIOL 195 - Introduction to Biology
BIOL 345 - Microbes' World
BIOL 400
BIOL 210L
BIOL 230L