Biography

We study the infections and innate immune responses to Enveloped RNA viruses – a remarkably diverse family of viruses, some of which are the most ubiquitous disease-causing viruses of humans and animals. Besides studying basic properties of how these important pathogens grow and kill cells, we have three general areas of research focus:

1. Development of vectors for cancer- and immuno-therapy. In collaboration with the Copik lab, we have developed viral “oncolytic” viruses which act in concert with immune cells to enhance the specific killing of cancer versus normal cells.

2. For many RNA viruses, an initial acute infection can transition to a prolonged or persistent infection, in which infected cells survive and continue to produce progeny virus. We are interested in how:
   • the infected cell changes during a persistent infection to avoid recognition by the immune system, and

   • the virus produced from persistent infections differs from virus produced during acute infection.

3. In collaboration with the Seal lab in College of Engineering, we have a range of projects where we are helping to develop novel nanoparticles as potent antiviral agents and uncovering the mechanisms of their ability to inactivate a wide range of pathogenic human viruses.

Recent Publications

1. Fox CR, Yousef NN, Varudkar N, Shiffer EM, Aquino JR, Kedarinath K and Parks GD. 2025. Resistance to Complement-Mediated Lysis of Parainfluenza Virus 5 Infected Cells is Acquired After Transition from Acute to Persistent Infection J. Virol. 99(2):e0189524.

2. Aquino JR and Parks GD. 2026. Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling (MAVS) Protein Modulates the Transition from Acute to Persistent Parainfluenza Virus Infection and Resistance to Complement-Mediated Cell Lysis. Viruses 18 (4), 416; https://doi.org/10.3390/v18040416.

3. Neal CJ, Pugazhendhi AS, Shiffer EM, Fox CR, Kalyar MHM, Kolanthai E, Stan-Glowinska K, Brown D, Ta KM, Wojewoda-Budka J, Sobczak N, Molinari M, Parks GD, Coathup MJ, and Seal S. 2026. Persistent, Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity by Multi-Metal Surface Phase Modified Ceria Nanozymes. 18(24):12850-12863. doi: 10.1039/d5nr05105c.

4. Kirton, LKM, Yousef NN, Parks GD, and Phanstiel O. 2025. Synthesis and Bioevaluation of Chalcones as Broad-spectrum Antiviral Compounds Against Single-Stranded RNA Viruses. Biomolecules. 15 (9):1285.doi: 10.3390/biom15091285.

5. Yousef, N. and Parks GD. 2025. Relationship Between Cell Surface Viral Glycoprotein Expression and Resistance of Parainfluenza Virus Persistently Infected Cells to C’-mediated Lysis. Pathogens. 14:815.

6. Shiffer EM, Oyer, J, Oyer J, Copik A and Parks GD. 2025. Type I IFN-Inducing Oncolytic Virus Improves NK-Mediated Killing of Tumor Cells In Vitro Through Multiple Mechanisms. Viruses 17, 897

7. Aquino JR, Fox CR and Parks GD. 2025. Role of Defective Interfering Particles in Complement-mediated Lysis of Parainfluenza Virus Infected Cells. Viruses. 17(4):488. doi: 10.3390/v17040488.