Benjamin Gewurz

Dr. Ben Gewurz completed his undergraduate at Stanford University, his MD and PhD in Immunology at Harvard Medical School, residency at Beth Israel Deaconess, and infectious disease fellowship at the Brigham & Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Gewurz performed his graduate research training in the laboratories of Hidde Ploegh and Don Wiley, studying human cytomegalovirus evasion of the MHC Class I antigen presentation pathway. He performed post-doctoral training with Elliott Kieff, studying Epstein-Barr virus oncogene LMP1 activation of the NF-kB pathway.

Dr. Gewurz joined the faculty in 2012 and is now an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Associate Chair of the Harvard Graduate Program in Virology. He is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and of the Harvard Department of Microbiology. He is a Member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Gewurz’s laboratory studies Epstein-Barr virus and SARS-Coronavirus-2 pathogenesis and B-cell immunobiology. The gamma-herpesvirus Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is a master regulator of B-cell biology. EBV persistently infects >95% of adults, making it one of the most successful viruses worldwide. While EBV typically establishes a safe balance with the host, it is the cause of infectious mononucleosis, is associated with multiple sclerosis and causes ~200,000 cancers per year. Intriguingly, these include B cell, T cell, NK cell lymphomas and the epithelial cell cancers gastric and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Studies of EBV/host interactions promise to reveal key aspects of EBV pathogenesis and of B lymphocyte biology. Indeed, EBV-infected B-cells were the first human lymphocytes that could be grown in culture and remain a key source of insights into B-cell biology, including NF-kB, MYC and Notch biology.

The Gewurz laboratory uses CRISPR/Cas9, proteomic, genomic and metabolomic approaches to investigate the EBV/host relationship and subversion of key cellular pathways. We study the relationship between EBV and multiple human malignancies, including lymphomas, gastric and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, how EBV subverts innate and adaptive immune pathways, epigenetic and metabolic pathways to establish latency and ultimately to reactivate its lytic cycle. The Gewurz lab uses whole exome approaches to investigate rare primary immunodeficiency syndromes manifest by chronic active EBV and EBV-associated lymphomas.

The Gewurz lab also uses a multi-disciplinary approach to identify host-directed antiviral targets to block replication of SARS-CoV-2. We are using whole cell metabolomic profiling to identify epithelial cell metabolic pathways that support massive coronavirus-driven RNA production, CRISPR/Cas9 approaches to identify host factors critical for coronavirus replication, and proteomic approaches to characterize how coronavirus infection remodels infected cell proteomes and compartments important for viral replication.

Clinical Interests

• Cytomegalovirus
• Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)
• Immunocompromised Infectious Disease
• Infection In The Immunocompromised Host
• Infections In Bone Marrow Transplant Patients
• Infections In Organ Transplant Patients
• Infections In Patients With Cancer
• Infections In Solid Organ Transplant Recipients
• Infections In Stem Cell Transplant Recipients
• Infectious Disease
• Transplant Infectious Disease
• Vaccines
• Virus Infections