We study human genetic variations and RNA-regulatory mechanisms to gain insights into the heterogeneity in immune responses against viral infections. Our main interest is to identify functional variants found in the coding and non-coding regions that determine susceptibility or resistance to life-threatening viral infections. We utilize inter-disciplinary approaches including human-genetics, comparative immunology, biochemical and molecular biology to investigate how genetic variations can influence virus clearance. The areas of current interests are mRNA splicing induced immune diversity, mRNA translation control, and role of non-coding RNA in pathogen sensing. Our work provides basic insights into immunological mechanisms and discovery of new targets for drug development against pathogens.