Gary Whittaker

About

Gary Whittaker, PhD, is the James Law Professor of Virology and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Graduate Field of Public Health and Planetary Health at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a member of the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Public & Ecosystem Health. Dr. Whittaker's research focuses on the structure and function of viral envelope proteins, specifically how genomic mutations lead to changes in these proteins and influence viral pathogenesis in influenza viruses and coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and feline coronaviruses. His work also involves the development of novel vaccines and diagnostic tests. He earned his PhD from the University of Leeds in the UK in 1991, with a focus on herpesvirus glycoproteins, and conducted post-doctoral studies on influenza virus at Yale Medical School before joining Cornell in 1996. Dr. Whittaker has received recognition for his research, including the Pfizer/Zoetis Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 2001, and is actively involved in professional organizations such as the International Society for Companion Animal Diseases and the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health.

Research topics

• Biology
• Virology
• Medicine
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Genetics
• Zoology
• Evolutionary biology
• Chemistry
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Coronavirus membrane fusion mechanism offers a potential target for antiviral development

  Antiviral Research · 2020 · 835 citations

  DOI

• β-Coronaviruses Use Lysosomes for Egress Instead of the Biosynthetic Secretory Pathway

  Cell · 2020 · 641 citations

  DOI

• Phylogenetic Analysis and Structural Modeling of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Reveals an Evolutionary Distinct and Proteolytically Sensitive Activation Loop

  Journal of Molecular Biology · 2020 · 505 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• A TMPRSS2 inhibitor acts as a pan-SARS-CoV-2 prophylactic and therapeutic

  Nature · 2022 · 230 citations

  . In Calu-3 cells it inhibits the entry of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), P.1 (Gamma) and B.1.617.2 (Delta). Notably, in the K18-human ACE2 transgenic mouse model of severe COVID-19, we found that N-0385 affords a high level of prophylactic and therapeutic benefit after multiple administrations or even after a single administration. Together, our findings show that TTSP-mediated proteolytic maturation of the spike protein is critical for SARS-CoV-2 infection…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Loss of FCoV-23 spike domain 0 enhances fusogenicity and entry kinetics

  Nature · 2025-07-09 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  . FCoV-23 is a recently emerged, highly pathogenic recombinant coronavirus responsible for a widespread outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis. Here we report cryogenic electron microscopy structures of two FCoV-23 spike isoforms that correspond to the in-host loss of domain 0 observed in clinical samples. The loss of domain 0 markedly enhances the fusogenicity and kinetics of entry into cells and possibly enables biotype switching and lethality. We show that FCoV-23 can use several aminopept…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AI048678

  NIH · $3.4M · 2014

• NIH Grant R21AI117300

  NIH · $457k · 2018

• NIH Grant R03AI060946

  NIH · $158k · 2006

Frequent coauthors

• Jean K. Millet

  Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

  110 shared

• Javier A. Jaimes

  New York University

  60 shared

• Nicole M. André

  49 shared

• Alison E. Stout

  New York University

  43 shared

• Marco R. Straus

  Cornell University

  40 shared

• Susan Daniel

  Cornell University

  39 shared

• Ximena A. Olarte‐Castillo

  36 shared

• Longping V. Tse

  Saint Louis University

  33 shared

Awards & honors

• Pfizer/Zoetis Animal Health Award for Research Excellence (2…

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Satoshi Kimurah-76
• Douglas Antczakh-57
• Dwight Bowmanh-55