Anne Moscona is an American virologist and pediatrician. Her research has identified cell entry mechanisms for enveloped respiratory viruses, with applications to

parainfluenza virus Human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) are the viruses that cause human parainfluenza. HPIVs are a paraphyletic group of four distinct single-stranded RNA viruses belonging to the ''Paramyxoviridae'' family. These viruses are closely associated with ...

Nipah virus Nipah virus, scientific name ''Nipah henipavirus'', is a bat-borne virus that causes Nipah virus infection in humans and other animals, a disease with a high mortality rate. Numerous disease outbreaks caused by Nipah virus have occurred in Sout ...

measles virus ''Measles morbillivirus'' (MeV), also called measles virus (MV), is a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped, non-segmented RNA virus of the genus '' Morbillivirus'' within the family ''Paramyxoviridae''. It is the cause of measles. Human ...

, and other viruses, and has applied this knowledge to the development of antiviral strategies to prevent infection by viruses including

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a No ...

. Since 2016, she has served as the Sherie L. Morrison Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at

Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes C ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, where she also directs the Center for Host Pathogen Interaction. In 2022, Moscona was elected as president of the

American Society for Virology The American Society for Virology (ASV) is an American scientific society serving the community of researchers in virology. The organization was founded in 1981 and was the first scientific society in the world dedicated exclusively to virology. F ...

, the nation's leading virology research organization.

Early life and education

Moscona was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, where her parents, Aron Moscona and Malka Moscona, were Israeli-American developmental biologists at the University of Chicago. Moscona received her BA in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1978, and MD from

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) is the graduate medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded i ...

in 1982.

Career

Moscona completed her clinical and research training at

Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is a hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Health System is structured around eight hospi ...

in New York City. She was promoted to tenured professor in 2001 and served as chief of pediatric infectious diseases and vice chair for research until 2005. In 2005, she became professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology, vice chair for research of Pediatrics, and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, before moving to Columbia in 2015 as a tri-departmental professor and center director. Moscona's research focuses on understanding how viruses enter human cells and how to use this knowledge to design better tools to prevent viral infection. Her research program focuses on

paramyxoviruses ''Paramyxoviridae'' (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''para-'' “by the side of” and ''myxa'' “mucus”) is a family of negative-strand RNA viruses in the order ''Mononegavirales''. Vertebrates serve as natural hosts. Diseases associated with this ...

, a family of negative-sense RNA viruses that cause severe illness in humans, and her group has developed new techniques to block viral infection through fusion inhibition, most recently developing fusion inhibitory peptides for

. She is frequently consulted as a medical expert during viral outbreaks, including epidemic and pandemic influenza. Her research has been featured in outlets including

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, the

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. His ...

, the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and

The Hill ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

COVID-19

On November 5, 2020, the

reported that Moscona's research group had collaboratively developed “A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus...” and that it had “...completely protected ferrets it was tested on, according to a small study...” According to the article, the therapeutics are patent pending and awaiting market production.

Awards

* 1985:

Charles H. Revson Foundation The Charles H. Revson Foundation was founded in 1956 by Charles H. Revson, the founding President of Revlon Cosmetics as a vehicle for his charitable giving. He willed half of his estate to the Foundation upon his death. Julie Sandorf has been t ...

Fellowship for Biomedical Research. * 1992: Elected to the

Society for Pediatric Research A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

. * 1992: Pediatric Infectious Disease Society Young Investigator Award. * 1992: Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award. * 2002: Elected to

American Society for Clinical Investigation The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), established in 1908, is one of the oldest and most respected medical honor societies in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United St ...

. * 2006: Burroughs Welcome Fund Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award Advisory Committee. * 2009: Elected to Fellowship in the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

. * 2019: Elected Councilor for Medical Virology,

. * 2020: Harrington Discovery Institute Awardee (COVID program). * 2022: Elected President of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moscona, Anne Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American virologists Physicians from Chicago American pediatricians Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Harvard University alumni Scientists from Chicago Columbia University faculty American people of Israeli descent Weill Medical College of Cornell University faculty 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians American women pediatricians American women virologists