We are delighted to announce that McArdle Laboratory Assistant Professor Kinjal Majumder has been awarded a 2025 Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award. Dr. Majumder was selected by the American Society for Virology (ASV), and the award was presented at the 2025 ASV Annual Meeting recently held in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Majumder is an expert in how DNA viruses replicate and cause diseases through their manipulation of the host-cell DNA damage response (DDR) machinery. He and his team have developed a powerful suite of high-resolution imaging-based tools to track viral genomes inside cells as well as advanced genomics-based techniques that allow them to study how host chromosomes are affected
in response to viral infection. One focus of the lab is on the replication and gene expression mechanisms used by parvoviruses, small DNA viruses that cause a wide variety of diseases in animals and that the Majumder lab are modifying to generate more efficacious vectors for gene therapy. His lab is also studying DNA viruses including hepatitis B virus (HBV), a leading cause of liver cancer, and high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause epithelial cancers.
The Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award is a highly prestigious honor given to 2-3 virologists at the ASV meeting annually, recognizing early-stage investigators who have already made major contributions to their fields and whose new research programs show exceptional promise. The Awards are named in honor of the late UW-Madison Biochemistry and Molecular Virology Professor Dr. Ann Palmenberg, who was a great mentor to young faculty and formerly served as President of the ASV. It was a banner year for UW-Madison, with both 2025 Palmenberg Junior Investigator awards going to UW-Madison junior faculty (Dr. Adam Bailey, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, also received the award).
For more information about the Majumder lab’s exciting work, see: https://majumderlab.oncology.wisc.edu/