Stephen P. Goff, PhD

Goff has been interested in viruses and their interactions with the host throughout his career. Over the past three decades, the Goff laboratory at Columbia University has focused on the replication of the mammalian retroviruses, including the Moloney murine leukemia virus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), aiming to define the functions of each of the viral gene products and to identify host proteins with which the viruses interact. His group studies all aspects of the viral life cycle. He has also made a major effort toward the characterization of the Abelson murine leukemia virus oncogene, its regulation, and its downstream signaling pathway. The laboratory makes use of the two-hybrid system, proteomic methods, and somatic cell genetics to identify host proteins that impact the viruses, including those that either restrict or enhance virus replication. The lab has identified and characterized a novel host protein, termed ZAP for zinc finger antiviral protein, that blocks gene expression of many viruses, including the murine leukemia viruses, Ebola, Sindbis, and HIV-1, by degrading viral mRNAs. Lab members have also characterized a protein complex responsible for the silencing of retroviral DNAs in embryonic stem (ES) cells, and identified a zinc finger protein, ZFP809, as an ES-cell specific recognition molecule that binds the proviral DNA and brings TRIM28 to locally modify chromatin.

Goff is strongly committed to the training of students and fellows and preparing them for careers in science. To date he has trained about thirty-five PhD students and a similar number of postdoctoral fellows. His alumni include heads of laboratories at universities in the US, UK, Australia, Chile, China, Taiwan, and Israel; department chairs; investigators at the NIH; and scientists at many biotech companies and large pharmaceutical firms.