Susana López Charretón: The virus detective
Keywords:
Virology, rotavirus, astrovirus, cell biologyAbstract
UNAM virologist Susana López Charretón has spent her career asking what happens before disease becomes obvious: how rotaviruses and astroviruses turn an intestinal cell into a viral workshop. Her research maps the “doors” these viruses use to enter, the cellular routes they redirect, and which steps are truly required for replication and exit. That mechanistic clarity supports sharper diagnostics, strain surveillance, and prevention strategies. Trained in Mexico and committed to building science locally, she has also shaped a lab culture in which ideas must withstand controls, repetition, and hard questions, fostering readiness long before the next outbreak arrives.
References
Arias, C. F., & López, S. (2021). Rotavirus cell entry: Not so simple after all. Current Opinion in Virology, 48, 42–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2021.03.011
Méndez, E., Muñoz-Yañez, C., Sánchez-San Martín, C., Aguirre-Crespo, G., Baños-Lara, M. D. R., Gutiérrez, M., et al. (2014). Characterization of human astrovirus cell entry. Journal of Virology, 88(5), 2452–2460. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.02908-13
Guerrero, C. A., Méndez, E., Zárate, S., Isa, P., López, S., & Arias, C. F. (2000). Integrin αvβ3 mediates rotavirus cell entry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(26), 14644–14649. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.250299897
Guerrero, C. A., Bouyssounade, D., Zárate, S., Isa, P., López, T., Espinosa, R., et al. (2002). Heat shock cognate protein 70 is involved in rotavirus cell entry. Journal of Virology, 76(8), 4096–4102. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.76.8.4096-4102.2002
Silva-Ayala, D., López, T., Gutiérrez, M., Perrimon, N., López, S., & Arias, C. F. (2013). Genome-wide RNAi screen reveals a role for the ESCRT complex in rotavirus cell entry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(25), 10270–10275. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304932110
Zárate, S., Romero, P., Espinosa, R., Arias, C. F., & López, S. (2004). VP7 mediates the interaction of rotaviruses with integrin αvβ3 through a novel integrin-binding site. Journal of Virology, 78(20), 10839–10847. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.78.20.10839-10847.2004
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Revista de divulgación científica iBIO
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Self-archiving or deposit of the works in their post-publication version (editorial version) is permitted in any personal, institutional or thematic repository, social or scientific networks. The above applies from the moment of publication of the article in question on the website of the Revista de divulgación científica iBIO.
