Rate My Professor Eva Gottwein

Eva Gottwein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She earned her PhD from Heidelberg University in 2005. Her laboratory investigates Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), the etiologic agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma and certain B cell lymphomas such as primary effusion lymphoma, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. The Gottwein lab employs genome-wide CRISPR essentiality screens, RNA-induced silencing complex analyses, and other molecular biology approaches to study viral mechanisms of oncogenesis. Key research areas include the targets and functions of KSHV microRNAs in primary effusion lymphoma cell lines and KSHV-infected endothelial cells; mechanisms of KSHV-mediated B cell transformation, identifying essential host genes such as IRF4, cyclin D2, MDM2, MCL1, and cellular FLIP; KSHV regulation of these genes and responses to immunomodulatory drugs; deregulation of endothelial cells by KSHV miR-K10, which mimics cellular miR-142-3p; and druggable targets in KSHV-associated malignancies, including mechanisms of immunomodulatory drugs in primary effusion lymphoma. She is a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics.

Gottwein’s publications include “Retargeting target-directed microRNA-decay sites to highly expressed viral or cellular miRNAs” (Nucleic Acids Research, 2024), “CRISPR screens identify novel regulators of cFLIP dependency and ligand-independent, TRAIL-R1-mediated cell death” (Cell Death & Differentiation, 2023), “Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Drives a Super-Enhancer-Mediated Survival Gene Expression Program in Primary Effusion Lymphoma” (mBio, 2020), “The Oncogenic Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Encodes a Mimic of the Tumor-Suppressive miR-15/16 miRNA Family” (Cell Reports, 2019), and “Genome-wide CRISPR screens reveal genetic mediators of cereblon modulator toxicity in primary effusion lymphoma” (Blood Advances, 2019). Her work elucidates how KSHV subverts cellular gene expression to drive cancers.