Please join us for the Wright Fleming Institute Seminars (last in the Summer Series) – hybrid event
Professor Jason Mercer
Biography
Prof. Jason Mercer, received his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from the Medical College of Wisconsin in the laboratory of Prof. Paula Traktman where he studied the complex assembly of the poxvirus membrane. He then moved to the lab of Prof. Ari Helenius at ETH Zurich for postdoctoral training. Using vaccinia virus as a model system, he discovered that viruses could subjugate the endocytic mechanism macropinocytosis to gain entry into host cells and pioneered the field of viral apoptotic mimicry, whereby viruses sneak into host cells disguised as apoptotic debris. In 2014, he moved to the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, University College London as an MRC Programme Leader in Virus Cell Biology. With additional support from an ERC Consolidator Grant his group uncovered novel mechanisms by which poxviruses subjugate host cell systems to promote their replication and unraveled the nano-architecture of poxviruses using super-resolution microscopy. In 2020, Jason joined the IMI at the University of Birmingham as Professor of Virus Cell Biology where his group continues to combine classic virology and cell biology with state-of the-art technologies to investigate the complex interactions between poxviruses and their host cells.