The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a lethal syndrome
(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) characterized by CD4+ T cell depletion
and resultant immunodeficiency. HIV has caused a worldwide epidemic that has killed millions of people and continues to infect about 40,000 people each year in this country.
The long-term goal of our research program is to provide improved treatments for people with HIV/AIDS. Existing therapies are highly effective at rendering viral particles non-infectious and thus reducing viral loads.
However none of the current drugs are capable of destroying infected cells. Many infected cells have short half-lives and die within days or months.
Others, however, remain in a state that is resistant to the immune system and can persist for years. To provide better therapies, our focus has been on understanding the molecular mechanisms of viral persistence within cellular reservoirs.
The development of drugs that will inhibit these pathways will bring us closer to a cure.
To this end, our research program focuses on major viral mechanisms of resistance to the cell mediated immune (CMI) response, which normally eradicates infected cells by direct lysis. To maintain a chronic infection HIV must evade lysis by both cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), and natural killer (NK) cells.
CTLs recognize infected cells with receptors that detect foreign peptide antigens presented in association with host major histocompatibility class I protein (MHC-I). NK cells recognize cells with abnormally low MHC-I levels and/or those that have upregulated NK activating ligands. Our goals are to better understand viral mechanisms of immune evasion and to ultimately inhibit these processes.
Education
5/85 B.A. Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA.
5/93 M.D., Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Baltimore, MD, laboratory of Dr. Thomas J. Kelly
Postgraduate Training
7/93-6/94 Intern, Internal Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA
7/94-6/95 Resident, Internal Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA
7/95-6/98 Clinical Fellow, Infectious Disease
Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brockton/West Roxbury VA Medical Center
Boston, MA
7/96-7/98 Research Fellow, Medicine
Harvard University
Boston, MA
7/96-7/98 Postdoctoral Fellow, laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Honors and Awards
1984 Phi Beta Kappa
1985 B.A., Summa cum laude with departmental honors in Molecular Biology; Thesis: "Characterization of the Interleukin-1 Gene."
1985 M.A. Cartland Shackford Medical Fellowship
1985 Wellesley College Trustee Scholar Award for Study in Medicine
1985 Wellesley College Durant Scholar
1986 Medical Scientist Training Program Award, Johns Hopkins University
1998 Biomedical Scholars Program Award, University of Michigan
1998 Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society Maxwell Finland Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research
1999 Pew Scholars Award
2003 Padykula Lecturer, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2004 Elizabeth C. Crosby Award
2005 Elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation
2005 Elizabeth C. Crosby Award
2006 Member, NIH AIP study section
2008 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research
2010 State-of-the-Art Speaker, 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Virology
2011 League of Research Excellence, U-M Medical School