Virology and Immunology

The Virology and Immunology group is focused on a multidisciplinary research and educational program with a wide range of interests in basic and applied research which relate to virus pathogens and host immune defense to virus infection. Faculty members use state-of-the-art cell, molecular, immunological and genetic approaches to examine the interface of pathogen-host cell interactions and dissect the molecular mechanisms involved in regulation of the immune response for vaccine development.

Faculty

Specific areas of research include:

Cellular immune functions for T-cell based vaccines to develop vaccines for immunodeficiency viruses;

Development of immunotherapeutic drugs for infectious diseases and cancers;

The design of computational models for major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-related diseases and therapeutics;

Pathogenetic mechanisms of canine influenza virus infection in dogs;

Recombinant West Nile vaccine;

Development and application of serological assays (ELISA’s) for the mass-screening of cetacean, pinniped and sirenian viral antibodies using recombinant antigens expressed in insect cell cultures;

Development and validation of real-time PCR and real-time RT-PCR assays for the mass-screening of viruses in tissues and lesions from stranded cetaceans, pinnipeds, and sirenians ;

Epidemiology and control of emerging viral diseases and their relationship to human and wildlife populations;

Evaluating the toxicity of gene therapy in animals using replication-incompetent adenovirus vectors; and

The development of novel viral vectors for HIV gene therapy.

Please click on individual faculty names to learn more about their research programs.