Summary
My principal research interests include the study of viral infections and the development of vaccines against such infections, with emphasis in understanding the innate and adaptive immune responses to retroviral infections in animal models. Particular attention is given to cytokines, molecules that mediate communication between the immune system and the whole organism. My laboratory has been developing technology for the identification of cytokines in nonhuman primates and also studying the potential use of these molecules to modify the outcome of immune responses. Ongoing projects include the use of nanoparticle technology for treatment of viral infections and for inducing more robust immune responses to vaccines, creating novel vaccines based in chimeric proteins that can simultaneously induce and modify an immune response, and trying to understand the mechanisms that allow certain monkey species to resist natural infection with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
As Leader of the Immunology Core Laboratory in the SNPRC, my laboratory fulfills the following aims: 1) provide assays based in flow cytometry for the characterization of blood cell subsets and the determination of cell mediated activity (T-cell proliferation, cytotoxic and natural killer cell activity) in nonhuman primate species; 2) provide methodologies for the simultaneous determination of multiple cytokines and chemokines in biological fluids derived from nonhuman primate species; and 3) provide a service for genotyping selected MHC class I alleles in Indian rhesus macaques. We are also participants in the NIH Nonhuman Primate Reagent Resource.
Education
Doctoral Degree: Ph.D.
National University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires , Argentina
Analysis of pulmonary inflammation and function in the mouse and baboon after exposure to Mycoplasma pneumoniae CARDS toxin.
Hardy RD, Coalson JJ, Peters J, Chaparro A, Techasaensiri C, Giavedoni, LD, Cantwell AM, Kannan TR, Baseman JB, and Dube PH.
PLoS One 4 (10): e7562, 2009
PubMed ID: 19859545
Nonpathogenic SIV infection of African green monkeys induces a strong but rapidly controlled type I IFN response.
Jacquelin B, Mayau V, Targat B, Liovat A-S, Kunkel K, Petitjean G, Dillies M-A, Roques P, Butor C, Giavedoni LD, Lebon P, Barré-Sinoussi F, Benecke A and Müller-Trutwin MC.
J Clin Invest 119 (12): 3544-3555, 2009
PubMed ID: 19959873
