Thomas Michael Kristie

He leaves behind his brother Lewis and sister-in-law, Rosemary along with several nieces and nephews.

Tom also leaves his lifelong friend, Ted Clements of Silver Spring, MD. Tom enjoyed collecting antiques and had rescued seven greyhounds in his lifetime. He is predeceased by two sisters, Barbara and Susan.

Tom was an investigator in the NIAID Laboratory of Viral Diseases for more than 30 years and Chief of the Molecular Genetics Section since 2001.

A private service will take place at the National Memorial Cemetery at Quantico.

We are saddened to inform you that Tom Kristie, an investigator in the NIAID Laboratory of Viral Diseases for more than 30 years and Chief of the Molecular Genetics Section since 2001, passed away on March 25, 2025, after a long illness.

Tom was a pioneer in the field of DNA virus epigenetics and worked on aspects of herpesviral gene regulation and viral chromatin. His work spanned fundamental aspects of gene regulation in vitro to translational research wherein he was the first to identify specific histone modulating enzymes that could be inhibited to prevent reactivation of herpes viruses in vivo.

He received his PhD degree from the Committee on Virology at the University of Chicago for his dissertation research with Bernard Roizman. In this research he distinguished the promoter sequences of herpes simplex virus immediate-early (IE) promoters from early promoters and identified the host and viral proteins binding to these sequences. He showed that the IE protein ICP4 bound to IE gene regulatory sequences and that a host protein complex involving a virion protein, a trans-inducing factor, bound to the promoter regulatory sequences. This was later shown to be the HSV virion protein 16 (VP16). As a postdoc with Phil Sharp at MIT, Tom showed that the host proteins in the aTIF complex included octamer binding factor 1 (Oct-1). He further showed that a host factor, called C-1 or host cell factor 1 (HCF-1) assembles the complex involving VP16 and Oct-1.

In his own laboratory, Tom showed that HCF-1 is in the cytoplasm of neurons where it is unable to promote the IE gene transcription of neurons, contributing to establishment of latent infection. He further showed that HCF-1 recruited histone methyltransferases to the IE gene promoters to remove heterochromatic modifications and add euchromatic modifications to histone H3 on the IE gene promoters. He had the idea that blocking removal of the heterochromatin modifications by specific inhibitors would block HSV lytic infection and reactivation from latent infection, which he showed in cell culture and animal models.

Tom was a wonderful friend and colleague to many of us. He greatly enjoyed organizing the biennial NIH meeting on viral epigenetics called Chromatin Control of Viral Infection, as recently as last September. The meeting brings together DNA virologists, retrovirologists, and chromatin researchers. Tom won several awards including 2009 Norman P. Salzman Memorial Mentor Award in Virology, a 2010 NIAID Merit Award, and in 2012 was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Tom had been chosen to deliver the Bernard Roizman Lecture at the 2025 International Herpesvirus Workshop in July. In his free time Tom restored his house with historic accuracy and was a proud caregiver to several displaced racing greyhound dogs. We are greatly saddened by Tom’s death. He will be truly missed. To share from a book Tom often quoted, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”