Carol Artlett, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Inflammasome signaling; IL-1 mediated fibrosis; collagen export from the endoplasmic reticulum; miR-155; small molecule therapeutic development

Jane Azizkhan-Clifford, PhD

Professor Emerita; Associate Dean for Medical Student Research
Department: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Cellular response to DNA damage, regulation of gene expression, cellular proliferation and the cell cycle

Joris Beld, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Chemical biology and microbiology of secondary metabolism in various organisms

Lawrence Bergman, PhD

Professor Emeritus
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Malaria, invasion, global gene expression, merozoite, sporozoite, actin-myosin, microarray, Plasmodium

Elizabeth Blankenhorn, PhD

Professor Emeritus
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Genetic foundations for inherited susceptibility to autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, scleroderma and multiple sclerosis; impact of genetics on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

James M. Burns Jr., PhD

Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Development of protective immunity against malaria induced by immunization with defined subunit vaccines targeting pre-erythrocytic stage, blood-stage and sexual stage parasites.

Mary Ann Comunale, EdD, MS

Associate Professor; Director, Center for Scientific Communications and Outreach
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Scientific: Proteomic and glycoproteomic analysis to identify early markers of disease, analytical and clinical assay development.
Educational: Innovative learning technologies including gamification and game based learning.

Will Dampier, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Exploring patterns of HIV genetic variation, its influences on disease progression and impacts on excision therapy

Joshua Earl, PhD

Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Statistical comparative analysis of whole bacterial genomes, including gene content/variation and homologous gene transfer, specifically in Moraxella catarrhalis and other naso-pharyngeal pathogens; comparative ecological analysis of human microbial communities and their role in pathogenesis; statistical computing using parallel environments and application development.

Garth D. Ehrlich, PhD, FAAAS, FAAM

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology; Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Department: Microbiology & Immunology, Otolaryngology
Research Interests: Use of large-scale comparative genomic technologies to explore the molecular pathogenesis of chronic infectious diseases and the human genetics of susceptibility and resistance to infection.

Elias El Haddad, PhD

Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology; MD/PhD Program Director
Department: Medicine: Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Human immunology, systems biology, infectious disease pathogenesis and vaccinology

Itzhak Fischer, PhD

Professor
Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
Research Interests: Cellular and molecular strategies in promoting regeneration; structure and function of neuronal cytoskeleton

Richard Huneke, DVM

Professor; Executive Director, ULAR
Department: Microbiology & Immunology

Pooja Jain, PhD, MS

Professor; Co-Director, Master of Science in Immunology Program
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Retrovirus (HIV/HTLV)-associated cancer and neuroinflammation, myeloid/dendritic cell-based immunotherapy, extracellular vesicles

Stephen Jennings, PhD

Professor; Co-Director, Master of Science in Immunology Program
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Optimal protection from HSV-1 infection provided by interactions between innate and acquired immune responses.

Hangjun Ke, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: pH regulation of the cytosol and other subcellular compartments; bioenergetics of malaria parasites; mitochondrial dynamics, morphology and function

Zafar Khan, PhD

Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Transgenic and humanized mouse modeling of neuroinflammation; target-based high-throughput screening (HTS) and pre-clinical studies on development of novel antiviral molecules with focus on mechanism(s) of action; INDO-US collaborative program under the Center for International Translational Medicine of the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease (IMMID)

Sandhya Kortagere, PhD

Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Biased signaling of dopamine D3 receptor agonists; developing symptomatic and disease-modifying therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease; etiology of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease; role of dopamine receptors in neurocognitive impairment in HIV and other neuronal infections

Fred Krebs, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Plasma medicine (biomedical applications of non-thermal plasma), with an emphasis on developing preventative and immunotherapeutic approaches to combat human viral pathogens.

Michele Kutzler, PhD

Associate Dean for Faculty; Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology
Department: Medicine: Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Translational research in the area of vaccinology, immunology and infectious disease

Kirsten Larson, PhD

Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Development of educational activities, flipped classroom experiences and peer evaluation

Patrick Loll, PhD

Professor
Department: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Research Interests: X-ray crystallography and protein biophysics; integral membrane protein structure; antibiotic resistance; mechanism of drug action; protein homeostasis

Julio Martin-Garcia, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Macrophage tropism and neurotropism of HIV-1; cellular senescence during HIV-1 infection and HIV-1 neuropathogenesis; innate immune responses to HIV-1 infection in macrophages, microglia and dendritic cells; microRNAs and HIV-1

Michael Mather, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Physiology of malaria parasites, especially mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism

Joshua Chang Mell, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Using genomics to investigate the mechanism, consequences and evolution of genetic recombination, especially in pathogenic bacteria.

Olimpia Meucci, MD, PhD

Professor & Chair
Department: Pharmacology & Physiology
Research Interests: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and drug abuse, chemokine-based therapeutics, neuroprotective pathways in neuroinflammation

Joanne Morrisey

Research Instructor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology

Elise Mosser, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Innovative biomedical graduate education, with a specific focus on online course design and course development

Sonia Navas-Martin, PhD

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Innate immunity, toll-like receptors, neuroimmunology, neuroinflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, blood brain barrier, microglia, astrocytes, neurons, macrophages, viral encephlalitis, demyelination, molecular pathogenesis of neurotropic RNA viruses, cellular senesce, microRNAs, animal models, therapeutic targets

Michael Nonnemacher, PhD

Director, Division of Biomedical Sciences; Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: HIV-1 genetic variation in disease progression; role of viral accessory proteins in pathogenesis; gene-editing strategies for HIV cure research; HIV/HBV coinfection in cancer; impact of HIV-1 and drugs of abuse on the CNS

Pamela Norton, PhD

Associate Professor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Characterization of glycoproteomic biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma, induction of novel immune responses by agents that alter N-glycan processing

Shendra Passic, MS

Research Instructor
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Variation in HIV-1 genetic and immune markers during disease progression; HIV-1 drug development and microbicides

Vanessa Pirrone, PhD

Associate Professor; Assistant Dean of Admissions
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Impact of HIV infection on colorectal cancer, and the role of the HIV-1 Nef protein; impact of age and HIV/HCV coinfection on HIV-1 replication, pathogenesis and immune activation profiles

Richard Rest, PhD

Professor Emeritus
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Molecular and cellular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis and Bacillus anthracis

Akhil Vaidya, PhD

Professor; Director, Center for Molecular Parasitology
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Understanding basic molecular functioning of malaria parasites with a view to developing new antimalarial drugs.

Brian Wigdahl, PhD

Professor and Chair; Director, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease
Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Immunopathogenesis and neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 and HTLV-I infection; transcriptional regulation of retroviral expression; viral sequence diversity and correlations to disease; development of microbicidal agents