Moriah Szpara

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Biology

Moriah Szpara

Research Summary

How genetic variation influences the outcomes of viral infection, particularly for neurotropic viruses such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2, using high-throughput sequencing, comparative genomics, neuronal cultures, and genetic manipulation of both host and pathogen.

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

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Publication Tags

Viruses Human Herpesvirus 1 Genome Simplexvirus Genes Viral Genome Dna Infection Proteins Neurons Virulence Virus Diseases Cells Phenotype Mutation Nucleocapsid Population Viral Dna Interferons Finland Galaxies North America Purine Enzymes Virus Replication

Most Recent Papers

Interferon-independent STING signaling promotes resistance to HSV-1 in vivo

Lívia H. Yamashiro, Stephen C. Wilson, Huntly M. Morrison, Vasiliki Karalis, Jing Yi J. Chung, Katherine J. Chen, Helen S. Bateup, Moriah L. Szpara, Angus Y. Lee, Jeffery S. Cox, Russell E. Vance, 2020, Nature Communications

Viral Genetic Diversity and Its Potential Contributions to the Development and Progression of Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Disease

Lisa Akhtar, Moriah Szpara, 2019, Current Clinical Microbiology Reports on p. 249-256

Persistent Infection with Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and Alzheimer’s Disease—A Call to Study How Variability in Both Virus and Host may Impact Disease

Colleen Mangold, Moriah Szpara, 2019, Viruses on p. 966

Herpes Simplex Virus Disease Management and Diagnostics in the Era of High-Throughput Sequencing

Utsav Pandey, Moriah Louise Szpara, 2019, Clinical Microbiology Newsletter on p. 41-48

Genotypic and Phenotypic Diversity of Herpes Simplex Virus 2 within the Infected Neonatal Population

Lisa Akhtar, Christopher Bowen, Daniel Renner, Utsav Pandey, Ashley Della Fera, David Kimberlin, Mark Prichard, Richard Whitley, Matthew Weitzman, Moriah Szpara, 2019, mSphere on p. e00590--18

Comparison of herpes simplex virus 1 strains circulating in Finland demonstrates the uncoupling of whole-genome relatedness and phenotypic outcomes of viral infection

Christopher Bowen, Henrik Paavilainen, Daniel Renner, Jussi Palomäki, Jenni Lehtinen, Tytti Vuorinen, Peter Norberg, Veijo Hukkanen, Moriah Szpara, 2019, Journal of Virology on p. e01824--18

Molecular epidemiology of Marek’s disease virus in central Pennsylvania, USA

Andrew Bell, David Kennedy, Matthew Jones, Christopher Cairns, Utsav Pandey, Patricia Dunn, Moriah Szpara, Andrew Read, 2019, Virus Evolution

Personalized viral genomic investigation of herpes simplex virus 1 perinatal viremic transmission with dual fatality

MacKenzie M. Shipley, Daniel W. Renner, Utsav Pandey, Bradley Ford, David C. Bloom, Charles Grose, Moriah L. Szpara, 2019, Cold Spring Harbor molecular case studies

Genome-wide surveillance of genital herpes simplex virus type 1 from multiple anatomic sites over time

Mackenzie M. Shipley, Daniel W. Renner, Mariliis Ott, David C. Bloom, David M. Koelle, Christine Johnston, Moriah Louise Szpara, 2018, Journal of Infectious Diseases on p. 595-605

Expression of the purine biosynthetic enzyme phosphoribosyl formylglycinamidine synthase in neurons

Colleen Mangold, Pamela Yao, Mei Du, Willard Freeman, Stephen Benkovic, Moriah Szpara, 2018, Journal of Neurochemistry on p. 723--735

Most-Cited Papers

Evolution and diversity in human herpes simplex virus genomes

Moriah L. Szpara, Derek Gatherer, Alejandro Ochoa, Benjamin Greenbaum, Aidan Dolan, Rory J. Bowden, Lynn W. Enquist, Matthieu Legendre, Andrew J. Davison, 2014, Journal of Virology on p. 1209-1227

A wide extent of inter-strain diversity in virulent and vaccine strains of Alphaherpesviruses

Moriah L. Szpara, Yolanda R. Tafuri, Lance Parsons, S. Rafi Shamim, Kevin J. Verstrepen, Matthieu Legendre, L. W. Enquist, 2011, PLoS Pathogens on p. 1-23

Differentiation of the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line

Mackenzie M. Shipley, Colleen A. Mangold, Moriah L. Szpara, 2016, Journal of Visualized Experiments

Herpes simplex virus 1 pUL34 plays a critical role in cell-to-cell spread of virus in addition to its role in virus replication

Alison C. Haugo, Moriah L. Szpara, Lance Parsons, Lynn W. Enquist, Richard J. Roller, 2011, Journal of Virology on p. 7203-7215

Rapid genome assembly and comparison decode intrastrain variation in human alphaherpesviruses

Lance Parsons, Yolanda Tafuri, Jacob Shreve, Christopher Bowen, Mackenzie Shipley, L. Enquist, Moriah Szpara, 2015, mBio on p. e02213--14

VirAmp: A galaxy-based viral genome assembly pipeline

Yinan Wan, Daniel W. Renner, Istvan Albert, Moriah L. Szpara, 2015, GigaScience

A phylogenomic analysis of Marek's disease virus reveals independent paths to virulence in Eurasia and North America

Jakob Trimpert, Nicole Groenke, Maria Jenckel, Shulin He, Dusan Kunec, Moriah Louise Szpara, Stephen J. Spatz, Nikolaus Osterrieder, Dino P. McMahon, 2017, Evolutionary Applications on p. 1091-1101

Preparation of viral DNA from nucleocapsids

Moriah L. Szpara, Yolanda R. Tafuri, L. W. Enquist, 2011, Journal of Visualized Experiments

Viral forensic genomics reveals the relatedness of classic herpes simplex virus strains KOS, KOS63, and KOS79

Christopher D. Bowen, Daniel W. Renner, Jacob T. Shreve, Yolanda Tafuri, Kimberly M. Payne, Richard D. Dix, Paul R. Kinchington, Derek Gatherer, Moriah L. Szpara, 2016, Virology on p. 179-186

Inferred father-to-son transmission of herpes simplex virus results in near-perfect preservation of viral genome identity and in vivo phenotypes

Utsav Pandey, Daniel W. Renner, Richard L. Thompson, Moriah Louise Szpara, Nancy M. Sawtell, 2017, Scientific Reports on p. 13666