Dr. Peng is a laboratory animal veterinarian and faculty of basic sciences. His primary research interest is the development and use of genetically modified animals, especially transgenic rabbits, as models for studies of human diseases. His research has been focused on studying the mechanisms of the tissue specificity of papillomavirus infection and the infection related tumor initiation, regression and progression. Additionally, due to his expertise in production of transgenic rabbits, he has been actively involved in collaboration with investigators both inside and outside of the institution. In collaboration with Dr. Christensen of Penn State Hershey, transgenic lines of rabbits expressing the human MHC class I gene HLA-A2.1 have been established for studies of host immunity to the specific epitopes of human papillomaviruses. The initial studies indicated that the HLA-A2.1 transgenic rabbits can provide an important preclinical animal model system for studies of virus-host interactions and to assess specific targets for immunoprotection and/or immunotherapy related to infection by several human pathogens with permissiveness or semipermissiveness in rabbits.