Profile of Diane E. Griffin

Reflecting on her career, Diane Griffin admits that she never had a grand plan for her scientific path. When she started graduate school, she did not know what kind of doctorate she wanted. “This was a follow-your-nose career; this was a take-advantage-of-the-opportunities career,” she says. Currently Professor of Medicine and Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD) and Professor and Alfred and Jill Sommer Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Griffin has made the most of the sometimes serendipitous opportunities that have peppered her life to become one of the leading researchers in infectious virology.

Griffin has studied host immune responses to viral infections since she first arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1970. “It's such a fascinating area where both host and invader can determine what the outcome is, whether an animal lives or dies.” Her two primary areas of research include neurovirulence in Sindbis virus and immunosuppression induced by human measles virus. In both areas, Griffin's research has revealed many of the mechanisms by which these viruses interact with their host and cause disease. She has received many accolades for her pioneering work, including elections to both the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

She now uses her knowledge of the measles virus to develop new vaccines. In her Inaugural Article in this issue of PNAS, Griffin (1) reports on her latest vaccine design using Sindbis virus particles expressing the measles hemagglutinin protein. Her findings highlight the complexity involved in clearing measles virus from the body and may lead to a new vaccine that could be administered to infants in developing countries, where measles still remains a major public health concern.