Dr. Mothes studied chemistry (Diploma 1993) and received a Ph.D. in cell biology (Humboldt University Berlin 1998) for his studies on protein secretion and membrane protein integration at the endoplasmic reticulum under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Rapoport at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mothes completed his postdoctoral training on retroviral entry with Drs. John Young and James Cunningham at Harvard Medical School before he started his own laboratory at Yale University in 2001. He was awarded a Hellman Family Fellowship in 2002, and a Searle Scholarship in 2003. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2020. Dr. Mothes received Tenure in 2011, was promoted to Full Professor in 2016, and became the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine in 2021.
The Mothes lab studies spread, pathogenesis and persistence of viral infections across multiple scales. Non-invasive bioluminescence imaging allows the lab to monitor these processes at the organismal level in living animals. Whole body imaging guides studies to infected tissues with single cell resolution using multi-photon laser scanning microscopy and immunohistochemistry. Electron tomography permits insights at the ultrastructural level. To understand molecular events during virus entry into cells the lab applies single molecule imaging of conformational events in viral spike proteins of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. Parallel single molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) and cryo-electron tomography (CryoET) allow insights into the structure and dynamics of these molecular machines. A detailed understanding of these processes will permit the rational design of immunogens for vaccines, antiviral therapies that prevent the infection of new cells and subsequent virus spread, and inform strategies towards a functional cure for people living on long-term antiviral therapy. For more information see http://medicine.yale.edu/lab/mothes/
