[1][2] Moss received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1957 from New York University, his M.D.
in 1961 from the New York University School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has also studied virally encoded immune defense proteins, or proteins encoded by the genomes of large DNA viruses that reduce the ability of the host's immune system to respond to viral infection.
He coined the term "virokine" to describe a class of these proteins that have high sequence identity to human cytokines.
A vaccine for rabies virus in current clinical use was developed using this technology.