Rate My Professor Felicia Goodrum

Felicia Goodrum, PhD, is a professor of immunobiology in the Department of Immunobiology at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. She earned her B.S. from Virginia Tech in 1992 and her Ph.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1998. After completing postdoctoral training with Thomas Shenk at Princeton University as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow and Special Fellow, she joined the University of Arizona faculty in 2006, concurrently affiliating with the BIO5 Institute. Over her tenure at Arizona, Goodrum advanced to full professor and served in key leadership roles, including Interim Associate Department Head of Immunobiology and Director of the Graduate Program in Immunobiology. She also holds professorial appointments in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, and Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program.

Goodrum's research investigates the intricate virus-host interactions that enable DNA viruses, particularly human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), to persist asymptomatically through lifelong latency and controlled reactivation. Her laboratory employs HCMV as a prototype betaherpesvirus to dissect molecular mechanisms governing viral gene expression, genome integrity via host DNA repair pathways, innate immune signaling, sterol metabolism via liver X receptors, and cell differentiation states in diverse cell types such as hematopoietic progenitors, endothelial, and epithelial cells. Pioneering studies from her group established models of HCMV latency in primary cells and identified key viral determinants like UL136 isoforms and UL138. Seminal publications include "Human cytomegalovirus gene expression during infection of primary hematopoietic progenitor cells: a model for latency" (2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) and "Liver X Receptor-Inducible Host E3 Ligase IDOL Targets a Human Cytomegalovirus Reactivation Determinant" (2023, Journal of Virology). Her contributions have profoundly influenced virology, earning recognition through the Howard Temin Award (National Cancer Institute), Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, NIH MERIT Award, Edith Sayre Auslander Emerging Visionary Award (2022), University of Arizona Women of Impact Award (2023), and election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Goodrum served as Past-President of the American Society for Virology (2021-2022) and was appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Virology in 2022. She actively advocates for science communication and policy.