Research

The immune system provides defense against microorganisms and cancer, achieving this protection through both cellular and molecular mechanisms that are innate and/or adaptive.  Elucidating these mechanisms provides critical guides to the rational development of immunotherapies and vaccines.  Researchers in our department use state-of-the-art approaches and models to investigate how the immune system responds to viral and bacterial infections, as well as how failures of immune tolerance can cause autoimmune disease.  Through these efforts, strategies to combat disease and develop novel treatments for autoimmunity are being developed.

Areas of interest include:  mechanisms of antigen presentation and gene regulation; T cell and B cell differentiation and the development of immune memory; mechanisms of autoimmunity; and mechanisms of immune response to microorganisms.

Humans interact daily with billions of microbes -- bacteria and viruses. Many, probably most, provide essential functions that allow life to thrive on this planet. However, others cause disease and death. What are the specific factors carried by the viral and bacterial pathogens that enable them to plague mankind? Research programs in the department seek to discover the virulence factors that arm viral and bacterial pathogens.

Areas of interest include: regulation of bacterial virulence factor expression, control of viral gene expression, virus transmission, viral evasion of immune responses, and host responses to bacterial pathogens.

The intricate “dance” between viral pathogens and the host response to infection is a major focus within the department.  Research in our department focuses both on control of acute viral infections and also on those viruses that establish chronic infections, such as those caused by HIV.  This includes research that focuses on issues of host control of viral infection, and other studies that focus on viral determinants of pathogenesis.

Areas of interest include: Studies on influenza viruses to determine how seasonal changes in virus strain evade established immunity; strategies for developing more broad range protection; characterization of viruses that establish chronic infections within the host – which include HIV, herpesviruses, and LCMV; studies that focus on host control of chronic infection, and other studies that focus on strategies employed by these viruses to evade detection and clearance by the host immune system.

Understanding the genetic principles and molecular mechanisms used by microorganisms to cause disease and the immune system to prevent disease is key to our ability to developing future therapies to combat infectious disease, autoimmunity, and cancer.  Today, the ability to create new molecules, determine and assess the sequences of entire genomes, and develop epigenetic maps and profiles of entire organisms has opened the door to exciting new developments and opportunities to understand the genetic principles of virulence, how microorganisms and the immune system develop, differentiate, and how organisms become resistant to antibiotics.

Areas of interest include: mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation; microbiota analyses; epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation; mechanisms of bacterial and viral replication; antibiotic resistance; and transcription regulation of gene expression.

Changes in ecology – whether they are a result of deforestation, enhanced global transportation and commerce, or practices within a hospital—have the potential to expose humans to grave new threats from infectious microorganisms that might cause catastrophic morbidity and mortality.  Sometimes outbreaks occur and then fizzle out as happened with the SARS coronavirus in 2003, while other times novel virus strains circulate globally, as occurred in the 2009 influenza pandemic. Thus, research programs within the department seek to understand the biology of infectious microorganisms and the immune defense mechanisms that arise (or fail to develop) to keep such microorganisms at bay. 

Areas of interest include studies on the following microorganisms:  Acinetobacter, Neisseria, Clostridium, influenza strains, gammaherpes viruses, HIV, dengue fever virus, yellow fever virus, and others.

Vaccines have led to the global eradication of smallpox, the near global eradication of polio, and phenomenal reductions in measles infections in most of the developed world, but the approaches used in those campaigns have been insufficient to conquer challenges such as providing protection against HIV or the development of a more efficacious and truly universal influenza vaccine. The scientific and technical challenges that have so far thwarted development of effective vaccines for HIV, influenza, and gammaherpes viruses are being address by members of our department and the closely associated Emory Vaccine Center.

Areas of interest include:  development of vaccines to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), influenza, gammaherpes viruses (EBV and CMV); analysis of vaccine regimens to simian immunodeficiency virus and other model microorganisms; and understanding immune responses in young and aged.