Ileana M. Cristea

Ileana Cristea is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Her laboratory focuses on characterizing mechanisms of cellular defense against viruses, as well as mechanisms used by viruses to manipulate these critical cellular processes. Towards these goals, she has promoted the integration of virology with proteomics and bioinformatics. She has developed methods for studying virus-host protein interactions in space and time during the progression of an infection, which have allowed her group to bridge developments in mass spectrometry to important findings in virology. For example, her laboratory has contributed to the emergence of the research field of nuclear DNA sensing in immune response, and has discovered sirtuins as broad-spectrum antiviral factors. Dr. Cristea is the President of US HUPO, chairs the Infectious Disease initiative of the Human Proteome World Organization, and has acted on the Education Committee of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. She has taught the Proteomics Course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for over ten years, and is Senior Editor for mSystems, Associate Editor of the Journal of Proteome Research, and on the Editorial Boards of Molecular Systems Biology and Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. She was recognized with the Bordoli Prize from the British Mass Spectrometry Society (2001), NIDA Avant-Garde Director Pioneer Award for HIV/AIDS Research (2008), Human Frontiers Science Program Young Investigator Award (2009), Early Career Award in Mass Spectrometry from the American Chemical Society (2011), the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award (2012), the Molecular Cellular Proteomics Lectureship (2013), the Mallinckrodt Scholar Award (2015), and the Discovery Award in Proteomic Sciences at HUPO (2017).