Dr. Stacy Horner, Ph.D.

Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Duke University Medical Center

Durham, NC

Dr. Stacy Horner is currently an Assistant Professor in the Molecular Genetics & Microbiology and Medicine departments at Duke University Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from Yale University under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel DiMaio. Her postdoctoral fellowship, which was supported by the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute, was with Dr. Michael Gale Jr. at the University of Washington. Her postdoctoral research focused on understanding innate immune regulation by hepatitis C virus (HCV), a global human pathogen. During this time, she identified the mitochondrial-associated ER membrane (MAM; a subdomain of the ER located adjacent to mitochondria) as a membrane platform that organizes innate immune signaling to RNA viruses and serves as the intracellular site of immune regulation by HCV. Her current research focuses on understanding the organization and regulation of antiviral innate immunity and how RNA viruses, including HCV, evade innate immunity. Research in her laboratory uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining techniques from cell biology, virology, biochemistry, and systems biology to reveal the viral and host strategies that coordinate and regulate innate immunity to RNA viruses, with the ultimate goal of developing new immunomodulatory strategies for virus treatment and prevention.