Research Categories - Infectious Disease

There are numerous laboratories at HMS interested in understanding how infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria can circumvent biological defense systems and elicit illness. There is a strong emphasis on viral-induced diseases that require more effective and less toxic medical treatments such as AIDS, hepatitis, and Dengue fever. Technology-intensive explorations into viral fusion events and structural elucidation of viral particles are also ongoing on campus. Another area of expertise is antibiotic resistance and microbiological biosynthetic pathways that produce naturally occurring antibiotics.

Related Investigators

  1. James Chou, PhD

    NMR spectroscopy and membrane protein structure; viral ion channels; antiviral compounds

    Apply advanced technologies to the reconstitution and structural biochemistry of membrane proteins, with a focus on viral ion channels; analyze the structure of membrane proteins at the level of ...

  2. Ronald Desrosiers, PhD

    HIV and AIDS: vaccine; persistent immune response

    Develop new strategies for blunting viral replication and bolstering the immune system’s ability to eradicate viral-infected T-cell reservoirs. 

  3. David Evans, PhD

    HIV infection and AIDS vaccine development

    Investigate new approaches for AIDS vaccine development using SIV infection of non-human primates as a model system.  

  4. Peter Howley, MD

    Papillomavirus biology

    Investigate the activities of papillomavirus-encoded proteins, including the E6-mediated degradation of p53 and E2-mediated regulation of viral transcription and genome replication

  5. Robert Paul Johnson, MD

    HIV mechanism of action and new AIDS therapies

    Gene therapy; vaccines

  6. Keith Mansfield, DVM

    Infectious diseases and aging: simian AIDS; opportunistic infection; diet

    Infectious diseases, aging, and dietary intervention.

  7. Xuebin Qin, MD, PhD

    Immune modulation to treat cancer and viral infections

    CD59, the complement cascade, and disease    

  8. Arlene Sharpe, MD, PhD

    T-cell regulation and disease: chronic viral infection; autoimmunity, tumor immunotherapy, peripheral tolerance

    T cell co-stimulation and its immunoregulatory role in controlling the balance between T cell activation and tolerance.  

  9. Antoine Van Oijen, PhD

    Single molecule imaging for uncovering molecular mechanisms of action: biologic and therapeutic analysis

    Dr. van Oijen’s research utilizes single molecule imaging for uncovering molecular mechanisms of action pertaining to cell fusion of enveloped viruses, DNA replication fork dynamics, and ...

  10. Priscilla Yang, PhD

    Host response to viral infection and drug discovery: dengue virus, hepatitis B and C viruses

    Investigate molecular mechanisms of dengue and hepatitis virus infection and replication; perform HTS for viral antagonists to identify host factors and pathways required for dengue virus infection ...