Projects

Shaping NK Repertoires and HIV Responsiveness via Antigen Exposure
The goal of this project is to determine how antigen exposure shapes NK cell diversity and NK responses to HIV. This will provide the rationale to develop novel vaccines that exploit the antiviral activity of NK cells to protect humans from HIV infection while avoiding detrimental activity. Collaborators on this project include Dr. Catherine Blish and her laboratory at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Harnessing NK Memory To Protect Against HIV Infection
The goal of this project is to examine the potential of a novel oral pollen-grain-based HIV envelope vaccine to elicit HIV-1 specific mucosal immunological memory in Natural Killer cells, which may result in the development of a protective HIV vaccine.

Curing Chronic HIV Infection With Adoptive Natural Killer Immunotherapy
The goal of this project is to determine whether Natural Killer (NK) cell-based adoptive immunotherapy can be exploited to eradicate the latent viral reservoir in patients with HIV. Collaborators on this project include Dr. Robin Parihar and his laboratory at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor.

Mechanisms of Protection of Universal Therapeutic Antibodies To Influenza A
The goal of this project is to develop a universal prophylactic or therapeutic agent to prevent or treat influenza A infection and associated pathologies. Collaborators on this project include Drs. Tompkins and Ross at the University of Georgia at Athens.

Innate immune crosstalk upon influenza A virus infection
The goal of this project is to determine how innate immune cells, including NK cells, crosstalk in the lungs of influenza A virus-infected mice and humans, which may result in the development of novel treatment strategies targeting innate immune crosstalk for improved host protection.

Natural Killer Cell Immunotherapy To Cure Lung Cancer
The goal of this proposal is to develop novel immunotherapies to elicit clinically relevant Natural Killer cell-mediated anti-tumor responses, using murine models of lung adenocarcinoma and patient-derived xenograft models of lung adenocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Collaborators on these projects include Drs. Kheradmand, Burt, van Buren and Parihar, and their laboratories at Baylor College of Medicine, the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor, and Dr. Diehl and his laboratory at Rice University.