James Boehlke was awarded the NIH F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which began on August 15, 2026. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Colorado State University and is currently a doctoral candidate in Microbiology in the laboratory of Dr. Anna Cliffe.
We asked James to tell us about his research and hopes for the future:
Tell us about your research:
The Cliffe Lab studies how Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) is able to establish latency and hide in neurons and how it is subsequently able to reactivate and cause disease. Although HSV-1 is most commonly associated with cold-sores or blisters, recurrent reactivation can cause keratitis or even encephalitis. It has previously been shown that the HSV-1 genome associates with host histones and forms chromatin in neurons which is epigenetically regulated to form repressive heterochromatin. However, the type of heterochromatin associated with the viral genome seems to be heterogenous. We have recently discovered a type of viral heterochromatin, formed through the deposition of the histone post-translational modification H2AK119ub1, that appears to make the virus more prone to reactivating. I am interested in how this reactivation-competent heterochromatin is formed on the viral genome and why it is only found in a subset of latently infected neurons. The ultimate goal of this project is to understand how HSV-1 achieves this “reactivation-competent” latency and how we may be able to prevent or target this specific form of latency.
What drives or motivates your scientific pursuits?
I have always been fascinated by viruses and the clever mechanisms both host and pathogen have evolved to combat one another for survival. This is certainly true for HSV-1, which has been co-evolving with humans for millions of years. Understanding the intimate relationship between host and pathogen, as frustrating and confusing it can be, feels like a puzzle that keeps me coming back.
What are your future goals?
I hope to stay in academia and continue studying virology. I would love to establish a lab to study how viruses manipulate host pathways, with the goal of revealing new therapeutic targets to control infection and disease.