Our Research
The Corey laboratory is more of a group collaboratory than a single scientist program. The laboratory scientific space in to investigate the host-viral battlefield at the mucosal surface. It uses a variety of technologies from single cell sorting to spatial visualization to study these issues. The model viral pathogens we use are herpesviruses (HSV-1 & HSV-2) and HIV. The two most senior scientists in the lab are Larry Corey and Jia Zhu, and several principal research scientists including Anton Sholukh and Karsten Eichholz are also funded investigators.
The dominant areas of the lab are in herpes virology, especially HSV, but projects in EBV, VZV, and HHV-8 are also in progress. The ultimate goal of these projects is to develop immunotherapies for the prevention and treatment of these chronic viral infections.
Papers of importance in the last 7 years are listed below.
Publications
- Ellison ST, Hayman I, Derr K, Derr P, Frebert S, Itkin Z, Shen M, Jones A, Olson W, Corey L, Wald A, Johnston C, Fong Y, Ferrer M, Zhu J. Limitations of acyclovir and identification of potent HSV antivirals using 3D bioprinted human skin equivalents. Nat Commun. 2025 Oct 16;16(1):9200.
- Laing KJ, Sholukh AM, MacPhee KJ, McClurkan CL, Pagnon A, Ruiz J, Bchir S, Oualim A, Hyrien O, Corey L, Wald A, Gurunathan S, Noriega F, Coronel D, Koelle DM. Safety and immunogenicity of investigational herpes simplex virus-2 vaccines in adults with recurrent genital infection. Vaccine. Volume 65, 24 October 2025, 127821.
- Weinstein E, Paredes R, Gardner A, Almas M, Baniecki ML, Guan S, Tudone E, Antonucci S, Gregg K, Garcia-Vidal C, Camacho-Ortiz A, Wisemandle W, Terra SG, Liu S, Aberg JA, Rana MM, Corey L, Ford ES, Hammond J, Rusnak J. Extended nirmatrelvir-ritonavir treatment durations for immunocompromised patients with COVID-19 (EPIC-IC): a placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind, phase 2 trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2025 Jul 14:S1473-3099(25)00221-X.
- Ford ES, Li AZ, Laing KJ, Dong L, Diem K, Jing L, Mayer-Blackwell K, Basu K, Ott M, Tartaglia J, Gurunathan S, Reid JL, Ecsedi M, Chapuis AG, Huang ML, Magaret AS, Johnston C, Zhu J, Koelle DM, Corey L. Expansion of the HSV-2-specific T cell repertoire in skin after immunotherapeutic HSV-2 vaccine. JCI Insight 2024 Jun 18;9(14):e179010.
- Eichholz K, Fukazawa Y, Peterson CW, Haeseleer F, Medina M, Hoffmeister S, Duell DM, Varco-Merth BD, Dross S, Park H, Labriola CS, Axthelm MK, Murnane RD, Smedley JV, Jin L, Gong J, Rust BJ, Fuller DH, Kiem HP, Picker LJ, Okoye AA, Corey L. Anti-PD-1 chimeric antigen receptor T cells efficiently target SIV-infected CD4+ T cells in germinal centers. J Clin Invest. 2024 Apr 1;134(7):e169309.
- St Germain R, Bossard EL, Corey L, Sholukh AM. Serum concentration of antigen-specific IgG can substantially bias interpretation of antibody-dependent phagocytosis assay readout. iScience. 2023 Aug 3;26(9):107527.
- Corey D, Haesseler F, Hou J, and Corey L. Chimeric engulfment receptors: novel engineered receptors that trigger T-cell effector functions against SIV infected CD4+ T cells. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev. 2022 Nov 15;28:1-10.
- Ford ES, Simmons W, Karmarkar EN, Yoke LH, Braimah AB, Orozco JJ, Ghiuzeli CM, Barnhill S, Sack CL, Benditt JO, Roychoudhury P, Greninger AL, Shapiro AE, Hammond JL, Rusnak JM, Dolsten M, Boeckh M, Liu C, Cheng GS, Corey L. Successful treatment of prolonged, severe COVID-19 lower respiratory tract disease in a B-cell ALL patient with an extended course of remdesivir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Nov 3:ciac868.
- Haeseleer F, Eichholz K, Tareen SU, Iwamoto N, Roederer M, Kirchhoff F, Park H, Okoye AA, Corey L. Real-Time Killing Assays to Assess the Potency of a New Anti-Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2020 Dec;36(12):998-1009.
- McLaughlin CC, Doll MK, Morrison KT, McLaughlin WL, O'Connor T, Sholukh AM, Bossard EL, Phasouk K, Ford ES, Diem K, Klock AM, Jerome KR, Corey L. High Community SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Seroprevalence in a Ski Resort Community, Blaine County, Idaho, US. Preliminary Results. medRxiv. 2020 Jul 21:2020.07.19.20157198.
- Li AZ, Corey L, Zhu J. Random-Reaction-Seed Method for Automated Identification of Neurite Elongation and Branching. Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 27;9(1):2908.
- Lo M, Zhu J, Hansen SG, Carroll T, Farr Zuend C, Nöel-Romas L, Ma ZM, Fritts L, Huang ML, Sun S, Huang Y, Koelle DM, Picker LJ, Burgener A, Corey L, Miller CJ. Acute Infection and Subsequent Subclinical Reactivation of Herpes Simplex Virus 2 after Vaginal Inoculation of Rhesus Macaques. J Virol. 2019 Jan 4;93(2).
- Ford ES, Magaret AS, Spak CW, Selke S, Kuntz S, Corey L, Wald A. Increase in HSV shedding at initiation of antiretroviral therapy and decrease in shedding over time on antiretroviral therapy in HIV and HSV-2 infected persons. AIDS. 2018 Nov 13;32(17):2525-2531.
- Agyemang E, Magaret AS, Selke S, Johnston C, Corey L, Wald A. Herpes Simplex Virus Shedding Rate: Surrogate Outcome for Genital Herpes Recurrence Frequency and Lesion Rates, and Phase 2 Clinical Trials End Point for Evaluating Efficacy of Antivirals. J Infect Dis. 2018 Oct 20;218(11):1691-1699.
- Peng T, Chanthaphavong RS, Sun S, Trigilio JA, Phasouk K, Jin L, Layton ED, Li AZ, Correnti CE, De van der Schueren W, Vazquez J, O'Day DR, Glass IA, Knipe DM, Wald A, Corey L, Zhu J. Keratinocytes produce IL-17c to protect peripheral nervous systems during human HSV-2 reactivation. J Exp Med. 2017 Aug 7;214(8):2315-2329.
- Posavad CM, Zhao L, Dong L, Jin L, Stevens CE, Magaret AS, Johnston C, Wald A, Zhu J, Corey L, Koelle DM. Enrichment of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) reactive mucosal T cells in the human female genital tract. Mucosal Immunol. 2017 Sep;10(5):1259-1269.