Rate My Professor Gill Elliott

Gill Elliott is Professor of Virology in the Department of Microbial Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Surrey, a position she has held since June 2013. She obtained her BSc in Microbiology in 1984 and PhD in Molecular Virology in 1988 from Queen's University Belfast. Following her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford with Sue and Alan Kingsman on the molecular aspects of HIV transcription. She then secured a Wellcome Trust Junior Fellowship at the University of Leeds, where she began her research on herpesviruses. At the Marie Curie Research Institute in Surrey, she initially worked in Peter O'Hare's laboratory on herpesviruses before establishing her own research group. In 2007, she joined the Section of Virology at Imperial College London, supported by an MRC Senior Nonclinical Fellowship to investigate the cell biology of herpes simplex virus (HSV) morphogenesis. She served as Director of Research at the University of Surrey from 2013 to 2022 and leads the Wessex One Health doctoral landscape programme.

Professor Elliott's research focuses on the cell biology of HSV infection, elucidating the viral and cellular molecules critical for virus production. Her studies explore how HSV commandeers host cellular machinery, particularly the secretory pathway, for efficient assembly and egress. She examines interactions between HSV structural proteins and cellular partners to identify potential targets for antiviral interventions. HSV persists as a lifelong latent infection in sensory neurons, periodically reactivating to cause conditions such as oral and genital herpes, infectious blindness, encephalitis, and serving as a cofactor for HIV acquisition. Key publications include 'VP16 interacts via its activation domain with VP22, a tegument protein of herpes-simplex virus, and is relocated to a novel macromolecular assembly in coexpressing cells' (Journal of Virology, 1995), 'Intercellular trafficking of VP22-GFP fusion proteins' (Gene Therapy, 1999), 'Cytoplasm-to-nucleus translocation of a herpesvirus tegument protein during cell division' (Journal of Virology, 2000), 'Cell-to-cell transmission of HSV1 in human keratinocytes in the absence of the major entry receptor, nectin1' (PLOS Pathogens, 2021), and 'Downregulation of endogenous nectin1 in human keratinocytes by herpes simplex virus 1 glycoprotein D excludes superinfection but does not affect NK cell function' (Journal of General Virology, 2024). Her contributions have significantly advanced the understanding of HSV-host interactions.