Nat is originally from Springfield, IL, and received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Nat then moved to St Louis, MO where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. David Leib studying herpes simplex virus pathogenesis…
Nat is originally from Springfield, IL, and received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Nat then moved to St Louis, MO where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. David Leib studying herpes simplex virus pathogenesis. Dr. Leib encouraged him to apply for graduate school and he was admitted to the Division of Biological Sciences at Washington University. While at Washington University, Nat studied the molecular determinants of gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis in vivo with Dr. Sam Speck and Skip Virgin.
Upon receiving his Ph.D,. Nat moved to Princeton University in 2004 to continue working in herpesvirus biology with Dr. Tom Shenk. While working in the Shenk lab his work focused on using mass spectrometry to identify binding partners for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) proteins in the context of infection. Using this approach, Nat’s research has been able to expand our understanding of the pathways and mechanism subverted by HCMV to gain control of the key host cell processes. Since August of 2010 Nat have been a faculty member of the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology and the Lineberger Cancer Center. He is continuing his work on the mechanisms by which HCMV and other herpesviruses commandeer the cellular protein synthesis machinery.
Unfortunately, Nat is a vehement Illini fan but we are expecting that to change to Carolina blue soon. He married his high school sweetheart Emily, and has two children, Stella and Sylvia.