Stephen P. Goff

Goff’s current work is centered on the study of the retrovirus life cycle and the host restriction systems that inhibit virus replication. His lab has identified and characterized many cellular genes that play major roles in the life cycle of these viruses. Recent progress includes studies of a novel host protein, termed ZAP for zinc finger antiviral protein, that blocks gene expression of many viruses, including the murine leukemia viruses, Ebola, Sindbis, and HIV-1, by degrading viral mRNAs and inhibiting their translation. The lab has also characterized a protein complex responsible for the silencing of retroviral DNAs in embryonic stem (ES) cells, and identified a zinc finger protein, ZFP809, as an ES-cell specific recognition molecule that binds the proviral DNA and brings TRIM28 to locally modify chromatin.