Paula Valino Ramos

Program: Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Current advisor: Lee Ratner, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of Iowa, 2020

Enrollment year: 2022

Research summary
I am interested in the transcription landscape of virus-induced malignancies at the single-cell level.

I am in the laboratory of Dr. Lee Ratner, where I study the pathogenicity of HHV8 in Kaposi Sarcoma lesions at the single-cell transcription level. I am interested in HHV8 expression patterns in KS tumors, as well as identifying human markers of KS progression and response to various treatment strategies.
My past work includes development of high carrying capacity gene therapy vectors for monogenic cerebellar disorders.

Graduate publications
Rauch DA, Ramos PV, Khanfar M, Harding J, Joseph A, Fahad A, Simonson P, Risch I, Griffith O, Griffith M, Ratner L. 2025 Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analysis of Kaposi Sarcoma. PLoS Pathog, 21(4):e1012233. PMCID: PMC11984749