Thomas Folks 
Associate Director, Research Resources, SNPRC | Virology and Immunology and SNPRC
Phone: 210-258-9889
Summary
"At the forefront of translational medicine, nonhuman primates are often the last critical piece in a research puzzle before a new life-saving process can be applied to a human."
My research interests include 3 major areas: 1) utilizing anti-HIV/SIV drugs to reduce HIV/SIV transmission as well as to include the use of such drugs in combination with bone marrow transplantation to provide a sterilizing cure in nonhuman primate animal models, 2) developing a Herpes B vaccine by delivering Herpes B antigens via a live replicating retroviral (foamy virus) vector that uses the macaque as its natural host, and 3) developing diagnostic nano-particles bearing receptors (CD4) that will circulate in vivo and after binding with the specific ligand (SIVenv) will relay a wireless radio-signal to a hand-held receiver which will be tested in nonhuman primates to more easily determine viral load.
Education
Doctoral Degree: Ph.D. Biomedical Science (Microbiology) (1977)
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) San Antonio, TX, USA
Dissertation: Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (Advisor: Dan Thor, MD, Ph.D.)
Master's Degree: M.S. Microbiology (1972)
Texas A & M Univ, School of Veterinary Medicine TX, USA
Thesis: Electrophoretic Studies of Serum from Horses Infected with Equine Infectious Anemia Virus
Bachelor's Degree B.A. B.A.
University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA
Postdoctoral Work
Postdoctoral Research Associate Fellowship, National Research Council, Naval Medical Research Institute, Naval Medical Center, Department of Immunology, Bethesda, Maryland (Advisor: Aftab Ansari, Ph.D.)
Awards and Honors
Mar. 1977 S. Edward Sulken Award (Texas Branch, American Society for Microbiology)
Apr. 1977 National Research Council, Postdoctoral Fellowship
Mar. 1988 Weismann Scholarship Award
Apr. 1988 NIH Directors Award
Jul. 1993 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Group Investigations Award – CDC
May 1994 James Nakano Citation – CDC (Nakano Citation)
May 1994 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
May 1995 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
May 1996 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
Dec. 1997 Appointed Senior Biomedical Research Scientist – CDC/PHS/HHS
Jun. 2001 Twice Nominated – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
Jun. 2002 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
Oct. 2002 Arnold G. Wedum Memorial Lecture Award
Jan. 2003 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
June 2004 NCHSTP Director’s Recognition Award
June 2005 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC (Nakano Citation)
June 2006 Nominee – Shepard Award – CDC June 2007 Nominee- Shepard Award-CDC
Patents
Patent – Folks, Powell and Martin. A cell line producing HIV-1 viral antigens without producing infectious particles.
Patent – Rabson, Leonard, Adachi, Martin, Wiley, Folks, et. al. Novel infectious clones of HIV DNA for easy mutational changes.
Patent – Kulaga, Folks, Kindt. Animal model for testing vaccines and therapeutic agents against AIDS.
Patent – Powell, Clouse, Folks. A chronically infected T cell line (ACH-2).
Patent – Butera, Perez, Folks. A unique CD4+ HIV-1 infected promyelocytic clone.
Patent – Heneine, Switzer, Yamamoto, Folks. Development of a new improved sensitive method for Reverse Transcriptase (AMP-RT) Detection.
Patent – Sandstrom, Brown, Switzer, Heneine, Folks. A new retrovirus isolated from humans.
Patent – Heneine, Garcia-Lerma, Yamamoto, Switzer, Folks. Method and kit for detecting HIV Resistance to anti-viral drugs.
Patent Pending – Critchfield, Butera, Coligan, Folks. Intracellular, second messenger, HIV inhibitor.
Patent Pending – Folks, Grovit-Ferbas, Xie, Chen. Live Replicating Spumavirus vector.
Patent – Kalish, Ndongmo, Pau, Switzer, Folks. Multiple antigenic peptide assay for detection of HIV or SIV type Retroviruses.
Patent – Robinson, Smith, Hua, Moss, Amara, Ross, Bright, Wyatt, Earl, Ellenberger, Folks, Butera. Compositions and Methods for Generating an Immune Response.
Patent Pending – Switzer, Heneine, Folks. Novel Primate T-Lymphotropic Viruses.
Publications
Intermittent prophylaxis withorral Truvada protects macaques from rectal SHIV infection.
Garcia’Lerma JG, Cong M-E, Mitchell J, Youngpairoj AS, Zheng Q, Masciotra S, Martin A, Kuklenyik Z, Holder A, Lipscomb J, Pau C-P, Barr JR, Hanson DL, Otten R, Paxton L, Folks TM, Heneine W.
Sci. Transl. Med. 13 January 2010; 2 (14): 14ra4, 2010
Ancient, independent evolution and distinct molecular features of the novel human T-lymphotropic virus type 4.
Switzer WM, Salemi M, Qari SH, Jia H, Gray RR, Katzourakis A, Marriott SJ, Pryor KN, Wolfe ND, Burke DS, Folks TM, Heneine W.
Retrovirology 6: art. 9, 2009
PubMed ID: 19187529
