Dr. Alex Compton received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington in 2012. As a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Emerman (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), he investigated the HIV-1 Vif protein and its target APOBEC3G, revealing lentivirus-driven evolution of host proteins on a million-year time scale. Dr. Compton was the recipient of a Pasteur Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and an ANRS (French National Agency on AIDS Research) Grant during his postdoctoral training with Dr. Olivier Schwartz at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he made key discoveries on the mechanisms by which the interferon-induced transmembrane (IFITM) proteins restrict HIV-1 infection. These studies provide important insight into the complex ways in which mammalian cells have evolved to counteract viral infections. Because the APOBEC and IFITM proteins restrict the replication of a number of viruses in addition to HIV, this work has broad implications for the understanding of host-pathogen interactions. In 2017, Dr. Compton joined the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program as Head of the Antiviral Immunity and Resistance Section to develop a research program focused on mechanisms of protection mediated by the cell-intrinsic innate immune response, as well as the strategies employed by HIV and emerging viruses to evade or overcome these immune barriers. 

Cell Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Virology