Use of functional genomics to understand replication deficient poxvirus-host interactions

High-throughput genomics technologies are currently being used to study a wide variety of viral infections, providing insight into which cellular genes and pathways are regulated after infection, and how these changes are related, or not, to efficient elimination of the pathogen. This article will focus on how gene expression studies of infections with non-replicative poxviruses currently used as vaccine vectors provide a global perspective of the molecular events associated with the viral infection in human cells. These high-throughput genomics approaches have the potential to lead to the identification of specific new properties of the viral vector or novel cellular targets that may aid in the development of more effective pox-derived vaccines and antivirals.