Harnessing the Power of Viruses

Boriana Marintcheva is an Associate professor of Biological Sciences at Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where she regularly teaches Virology, Cell Biology, and Molecular Biology courses with labs. By training Dr. Marintcheva is a molecular virologist who has studied Herpes Simplex Virus Type I replication as a doctoral student at University of Connecticut Health Center and the biology of the bacteriophage T7 single-stranded DNA–binding protein as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. While completing her BS/MS degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology at Sofia University, Bulgaria she briefly investigated stress response in plants. Dr. Marintcheva is passionate about science education, science promotion and development of pedagogical tools advancing teaching and learning. She views technology (in all shapes and forms) as a potential driver of curiosity, creativity and motivation to learn, as well as a powerful evidence for the positive impact of science on human life. She believes that it never hurts to be optimistic, even when viruses are involved, and is perpetually fascinated by the turns and twists they bring to science and technology.

1. Introduction to Viral Structure, Diversity and Biology2. Viral Enzymes Used in Nucleic Acid Manipulations in vitro3. Viral Tools for Genome Manipulations in vivo4. Viral Tools for Protein Expression and Purification5. Phage Display6. Virus-based Therapeutic Approaches7. Virus-driven Biocontrol Approaches8. Viruses as Nanoparticles