[2] He returned to the Chair of the Program in Virology at Harvard Medical School in 2019, having previously held the position from 2004 through 2016 and served as interim Co-Chair of the Microbiology and Immunobiology Department from 2016 through 2018.
[3] He continued his studies in cell biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his Ph.D. in 1976; his thesis research focused on vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) under the supervision of Dr. David Baltimore and Dr. Harvey Lodish.
[4][5][6][7] Following the completion of his graduate studies, he trained as post-doctoral fellow on molecular genetics of herpes simplex virus (HSV) at the University of Chicago with Dr. Bernard Roizman.
[8] This methodology was used to map viral glycoproteins, plaque morphology, and drug resistance markers, and to construct a genital herpes vaccine candidate.
[9] In 1979, Knipe joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School as an assistant professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and established his own lab to study HSV.