Dr. Matthew Frieman, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His laboratory focuses on the pathogenesis of Coronaviruses in cell culture and animal models to better understand what factors drive disease progression. For the past 17 years, he has studied the highly pathogenic coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV and now SARS-CoV-2 via genetic, molecular, virological, immunological, and cell biological techniques. He has been active in research as an independent investigator since 2009 and has been supported by funding sources including NIH, DARPA, BARDA, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a variety of pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Dr. Frieman’s lab has working models for other human respiratory viruses including seasonal coronaviruses, rhinovirus, influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus. The combination of in vitro and in vivo models for these viral infections allows identification of common host factors that affect multiple viruses allowing for identification of therapeutics and approaches that will have broad reach.