The J.I.M. interview. Purnell W. Choppin, MD.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is known worldwide for its support of high calibre research in the basic biomedical sciences. At present, 332 men and women at 72 institutions are HHMI investigators, putting them in the ranks of the best and the brightest (and certainly the most generously supported) researchers in America. But the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's portfolio goes well beyond its core program as a medical research organization.

Control of virus-induced cell fusion by host cell lipid composition.

Virus-induced cell fusion has been examined in a series of stable cell lines which were originally selected for resistance to the fusogenic effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG). For a wide variety of viruses, including murine hepatitis virus (a coronavirus), vesicular stomatitis virus (a rhabdovirus), and two paramyxoviruses (Sendai virus and SV5), susceptibility to virus-induced fusion was found to be inversely correlated with susceptibility to PEG-induced fusion. This phenomenon was observed both for cell fusion occurring in the course of viral infection and for fusion induced "from without" by the addition of high titers of noninfectious or inactivated virus.