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Dr. Mark Denison is a professor of pediatrics and an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. The Vanderbilt lab headed by Dr. Denison focuses on coronaviruses, a family of plus-strand RNA viruses that cause important infections in many animals and colds in humans. His research also includes a new coronavirus identified as the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The Denison laboratory studies the model coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) to understand the replication, cell biology, and protein functions of coronaviruses. The laboratory uses biochemical and genetic approaches, including the recent introduction of reverse genetic approaches, to define the specific functions of replicase proteins in the formation and function of viral replication complexes. In addition, the laboratory has a program to define the replication of the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and develop virus mutants as live virus vaccine candidates. The Denison laboratory has an active training program for students and postdoctoral fellows to develop new investigators in viral cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics.

Dr. Denison received his medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kansas, and completed his residency and fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, Iowa.