Research in the Lieberman laboratory centers on understanding how the cancer-associated viruses persist in a latent state and increase the risk of cancer cell evolution. EBV and KSHV establish latent infections that are associated with several human malignancies, including Burkitt's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin's disease, and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder for EBV, and Kaposi’s Sarcoma for KSHV.

Lieberman and his team have found that viral DNA replication and maintenance is regulated by interactions with cellular proteins that bind to telomeres—the repetitive DNA sequences found at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres protect chromosomes from loss of genetic information, and a similar process is thought to preserve the virus during latency. The Lieberman laboratory has worked out several biochemical pathways that control the stability, replication, and gene expression patterns of the latent virus. New research also focuses on the epigenetic controls of latent viruses and human telomeres, and how interactions between viruses and telomeres may induce a malignant transformation of the infected cell.