Eugene O. "Gene" Major is a senior investigator at the

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The ...

(NINDS), a part of the United States

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH). Major conducts research into the neurological diseases including

progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare and often fatal viral disease characterized by progressive damage (''-pathy'') or inflammation of the white matter (''leuko-'') of the brain (''-encephalo-'') at multiple locations (''mu ...

(PML), caused by

JC virus ''Human polyomavirus 2'', commonly referred to as the JC virus or John Cunningham virus, is a type of human polyomavirus (formerly known as papovavirus). It was identified by electron microscopy in 1965 by ZuRhein and Chou, and by Silverman and ...

and often found in immunosuppressed patients such as those with HIV/AIDS. Major has published over 140 scientific articles and reviews in the peer-reviewed literature and has contributed to ''Fields Virology'', a standard virology textbook.

Training and career

As an undergraduate, Major attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts Laboratory homepage
Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience - Division of Intramural Research. Eugene O. Major, Ph.D., Senior Investigator. He earned MS and

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

degrees at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, where he researched papovaviruses such as

BK virus The BK virus is a member of the polyomavirus family. Past infection with the BK virus is widespread, but significant consequences of infection are uncommon, with the exception of the immunocompromised and the immunosuppressed. BK virus is an abb ...

with Giampiero Di Mayorca. (The papovaviruses have since been split into two categories: papillomaviruses and polyomaviruses.) In his first faculty position, Major was an associate professor at the University of Illinois Medical School. He later moved to the Loyola University Medical School in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he also served as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs. In 1981, Major became an investigator with the Neurology Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He currently leads a molecular medicine and neuroscience laboratory as a senior investigator in the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the NIH.

Research

Throughout his career, Major has conducted research on viruses including

adenovirus Adenoviruses (members of the family ''Adenoviridae'') are medium-sized (90–100 nm), nonenveloped (without an outer lipid bilayer) viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double-stranded DNA genome. Their name derives from the ...

es,

simian virus 40 SV40 is an abbreviation for simian vacuolating virus 40 or simian virus 40, a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans. Like other polyomaviruses, SV40 is a DNA virus that has the potential to cause tumors in animals, but most often ...

(SV40), HIV-1, HIV-2,

HHV-6 Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is the common collective name for ''human betaherpesvirus 6A'' (HHV-6A) and ''human betaherpesvirus 6B'' (HHV-6B). These closely related viruses are two of the nine known human herpesviruses, herpesviruses that have hu ...

, and HPV-16.

Coverage

Major has been quoted extensively in news coverage of the finding that natalizumab (Tysabri) and related monoclonal antibody-based therapies increase the risk of a rare brain disease caused by

. A 2001 Medscape column named Major as a leading expert in white matter brain disease.Ask the Experts: Differential Diagnosis of White-Matter Brain Disease
Medscape, David M. Simpson, MD, September 25, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Major, Eugene O American virologists Living people University of Illinois alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)