Nathan Sherer, PhD
Position title: Professor, Molecular Virology & Oncology; MCP Program Director
Email: nsherer@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-890-2551
Address:
501A Bock Laboratories

Research Interests
The Retroviruses cause a variety of cancers and immunodeficiencies throughout the animal kingdom. Our group is interested in the cell biology underlying the assembly and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the etiological agent causing the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), as well as oncoretroviruses such as the murine leukaemia virus (MLV). Like all viruses, retroviruses have evolved to hijack specific features of their cellular hosts in ways that favor efficient viral replication. Understanding virus-host interactions can inform the development of novel antiviral strategies, and, in general, retroviruses provide great tools for probing questions of cellular function and immunity.
Recent advances in live cell imaging allow us to monitor specific stages of the viral life cycle in striking detail. We are combining time-lapse fluorescence microscopy with genetic and biochemical approaches to study how viral particles are assembled and transmitted from cell to cell. A current focus is on the post-transcriptional journey of HIV-1 genomic RNAs (gRNAs) from the nucleus to sites of virus assembly at the plasma membrane. gRNAs function both as messenger RNAs encoding the viral Gag structural protein as well as the genetic substrate bound and packaged by Gag into assembling virions. Therefore, gRNAs provide for an excellent system with which to study both the virus assembly pathway as well as the cellular machineries that regulate RNA transport and gene expression.
Honors & Awards
- 2014 Shaw Scientist
- 2007 EMBO Long-term Fellow
Selected Publications
(Find further publications on PubMed)
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Shlensky D, Mirrielees JA, Zhao Z, Wang L, Mahajan A, Yu M, Sherer NM, Wilke LG, Xu W., “Differential CARM1 Isoform Expression in Subcellular Compartments and among Malignant and Benign Breast Tumors.,” PLoS One. 2015 Jun 1;10(6):e0128143. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128143. eCollection 2015. PMID: 26030442
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Charoensuksai P, Kuhn P, Wang L, Sherer N, Xu W., “O-GlcNAcylation of co-activator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 regulates its protein substrate specificity.,” Biochem J. 2015 Mar 15;466(3):587-99. doi: 10.1042/BJ20141072. PMID: 25585345
- Aligeti M, Behrens RT, Pocock GM, Schindelin J, Dietz C, Eliceiri KW, Swanson CM, Malim MH, Ahlquist P, Sherer NM., “Cooperativity among Rev-associated nuclear export signals regulates HIV-1 gene expression and is a determinant of virus species tropism.,” J. Virol. 2014 Dec;88(24):14207-21. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01897-14. Epub 2014 Oct 1. PMID: 25275125
- Li F, Sewald X, Jin J, Sherer NM, Mothes W., “Murine leukemia virus Gag localizes to the uropod of migrating primary lymphocytes.,” J Virol. 2014 Sep;88(18):10541-55. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01104-14. Epub 2014 Jun 25. PMID: 24965475