Dr. Peter Angeletti

Associate Professor
Nebraska Center for Virology

Dr. Peter Angeletti is an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and a research in the Nebraska Center for Virology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). His research is focused on Human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the most common viruses infecting humans. HPVs are responsible for diseases of the skin and mucosa, including warts and some cancers. HPV-induced cervical cancer causes the death of 500,000 women worldwide, 90 percent of which are in developing countries.

Angeletti’s research focuses on three main topics relating to sexually transmitted HPVs. The first area of emphasis is in the analysis of long-term persistence of HPV. People infected with HPV can carry the virus for decades. A second area under study is the assembly of HPV capsid structures. Understanding capsid (virus) assembly can help in the development of novel vaccines. A final area of interest for the lab is the analysis of HPV types found in HIV positive patients in Zambia. As part of these studies, Dr. Angeletti’s research team is investigating the influence of HIV on HPV infection and tumorgenesis.

Dr. Angeletti developed an interest in virology as an undergraduate at UCLA. He began graduate studies on Adenovirus (a respiratory pathogen), which led to a Ph.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Later, as a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Angeletti developed the novel yeast-based system to study HPV functions, which became the basis for much of his continuing research at UNL.