I am a Professor of Microbiology and the Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. My research is in the area of RNA-containing viruses, with a special emphasis on influenza viruses. Specifically, my colleagues and I established the first genetic maps for influenza A, B, and C viruses, identified the function of several viral genes, and defined the mechanism of neuraminidase inhibitors (which are now FDA approved antivirals). We were also among the first to develop reverse genetics for negative strand RNA viruses, which we used to reconstruct and study the pathogenicity of the highly virulent 1918 pandemic influenza virus.