Human cytomegalovirus has been the focus of UCSD professor Deborah Spector’s research for 24 years, and while the virus has stayed the same, in the past seven years she has learned a bit more about it.

“Since obligate parasites like HCMV don’t have the means to make proteins or nucleic acids, they rely on human host cells,” Spector says. “We now understand a lot more about how the virus interacts with the host cell, and how it exploits the machinery for its needs.”

In July 2000, Spector became chair of the molecular biology section, division of biology at UCSD, which has been her home away from home since 1978.

“To give you some sense of the magnitude of the problem,” she says, “cytomegalovirus causes more of the very severe defects every year than rubella ever did in its worst epidemic year.” HCMV is the major viral cause of birth defects in infants. “Each year 2 percent are congenitally infected. Two percent of those children will have very serious birth defects: hearing loss, small brain, obvious learning deficits and a number of other problems. Of the other 98 percent infected at birth (they’ve been infected by the mother), between 10 percent and 20 percent will later show deficits such as progressive hearing loss or learning disabilities.”

By age 35, 40 percent of the population is infected with HCMV. The two additional ways to acquire the virus are at preschool through saliva, and through sexual activity. Normal, healthy individuals need not worry. But in those whose immune system is compromised because of a transplant or AIDS, the virus reactivates and can infect almost every organ system, often leading to death.

Spector works with undergraduate, graduate, master’s degree students and a post-doctoral fellow. “It’s fun,” she says. “It really is. There are surprises I find that I never dreamed were going to be there.”

The other significant part of her life includes a son, 26, and two daughters, 21 and 17. “It has been a nice balance for me,” she says. “I love working in the lab. I also enjoy my family very much.”

— Charlene Baldridge