Diana V. Pastrana, Ph.D.
- Center for Cancer Research
- National Cancer Institute
- Buildng 37, Room 4118
- Bethesda, MD 20892
- 240-760-7923
- 240-541-4502
- pastrand@mail.nih.gov
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Dr. Pastrana's projects in LCO have been related to the humoral response to papilloma and polyomaviruses. She has developed neutralization assays for many of these viruses. In addition, she has participated in the discovery of dozens of novel papillomaviruses and a few polyomavirus types. Her work has directly lead to the development of a polyomavirus vaccine which will soon be tested in clinical trials for prevention of nephropathy in kidney transplant patients.
Areas of Expertise
1) Cancer and Viruses 2) Polyomaviruses 3) Virus Neutralization 4) Virus Discovery 5) Papillomaviruses
Diana V. Pastrana, Ph.D.
Publications
Host-Pathogen Interactions in Human Polyomavirus 7‒Associated Pruritic Skin Eruption.
Biography
Diana V. Pastrana, Ph.D.
Dr. Pastrana received her B.S. from Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. She earned her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Her thesis work at the laboratory of Dr. Alan Scott was on filarial nematodes, where she identified a homologue of the Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor, which allows worms to redirect their host's immune response. She came to the NIH as a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology in 1998, under the leadership of Dr. John Schiller where she developed the a neutralization assay for papillomaviruses. She became a Staff Scientist in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Dr. David FitzGerald's laboratory where she studied immunotoxins. She returned to the LCO to work with Dr. Christopher Buck where she is currently studying polyomaviruses and is developing a vaccine that might help prevent nephropathy in kidney transplant patients.
Research
My major projects