Rate My Professor Goedele Maertens

Professor Goedele Maertens is Professor in Retrovirology in the Department of Infectious Disease within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, where she also serves as Section Head of Virology. She earned her BSc in Chemistry and MSc in Biochemistry from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium. Her PhD in Biochemistry, completed in 2005 at KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. Yves Engelborghs and funded by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), focused on the diffusion of nuclear proteins, particularly HIV-1 integrase, in collaboration with the Debyser laboratory. Midway through her doctoral studies, she spent two years at Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Following her PhD, Maertens joined the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute to investigate epigenetic regulation of a senescence-associated gene. She then returned to retrovirus research as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Peter Cherepanov’s laboratory at Imperial College London. In 2011, she was appointed Lecturer, establishing her independent research group focused on human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1).

Maertens leads the basic HTLV-1 research group, investigating host-pathogen interactions during the HTLV-1 replication cycle, with a particular emphasis on viral integration into the host genome and its effects on gene expression, cell survival, proliferation, and oncogenesis. Her laboratory employs multidisciplinary approaches including protein-protein interaction studies, biochemistry, structural and computational biology, virology, molecular biology, and microscopy. Notable achievements include demonstrating that FDA-approved antiretrovirals used against HIV-1 effectively block HTLV-1 transmission in tissue culture, highlighting their potential for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HTLV-1. Key publications encompass 'LEDGF/p75 is essential for nuclear and chromosomal targeting of HIV-1 integrase in human cells' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2003), 'HIV-1 Integrase Forms Stable Tetramers and Associates with LEDGF/p75' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2003), 'Structural basis for the inhibition of HTLV-1 integration inferred from cryoelectron microscopy' (Nature Communications, 2021), and a commentary 'Why not eliminate HTLV-1 while eliminating HIV-1?' (The Lancet, 2024). Her work advances therapeutic strategies against neglected retroviruses.