BECN1 and infection: Our key findings are: (a) in the newborn brain, HSV remains virulent independent of its ability to bind and inhibit beclin 1 (Fig. 4); (b) CNS disease from HSV occurs in newborn brain despite the activation of autophagy, which is not inhibited by virus possessing the ability to bind beclin 1 (Fig. 5); and (c) type I IFN signaling is not required to initiate autophagy in the newborn brain after infection (Fig. 6).