Glenn received his B.S. with distinction in Microbiology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. After an internship at Abbott Laboratories, he pursued graduate studies at The University of Chicago in the laboratory of Bernard Roizman. His doctoral thesis describes mechanisms by which herpes simplex virus I establishes a latent infection. He then joined the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease at Rockefeller University in New York. His American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship was under the mentorship of Charles Rice. His research focused on hepatitis C virus (HCV)-host interactions with an emphasis on the interaction between HCV and cellular RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. He joined the Department of Microbiology at the University of Chicago in August of 2005. Since joining The University of Chicago, Glenn has received numerous awards, including the Schweppe Fellowship, the American Liver Foundation Heman Lopata Hepatitis C Scholar, The University of Chicago DDRCC Outstanding New Investigator, and a Career Development Award from the Great Lakes Center for Excellence (NIH/NAIAD). He is currently an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.
Glenn's laboratory investigates the roles of virus-host interactions in replication and pathogenesis. They study viruses of the Flaviviridae, including hepatitis C virus and dengue virus. By applying RNAi interference as a genetic approach to identify host genes required for HCV infection, they have identified ~75 host cofactors of replication. They now study the importance of these cellular genes in diverse steps of the viral life cycle, including entry, the regulation of viral protein translation and RNA replication, modulation of cellular lipid metabolism, the establishment of viral replication complexes, the secretion of infectious virus, and control of infection by the innate immune system.