Roles
Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
Pediatrics and Medicine
Director, Miami CFAR (Center for AIDS Research)
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Biography
I am a Professor in the department of Microbiology and Immunology with secondary appointments in Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida, USA. I am a physician scientist, graduate of Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, India. After completing a Pediatric internship and residency, I trained as an immunologist at the Memorial Hospital and Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City with the renowned immunologist, Robert A Good and was appointed to the faculty there. Subsequently I directed the Allergy/Immunology Program at North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, NY for several years. This hospital was affiliated initially with Cornell University Medical Center, and then New York University during my time there. The immunology program was centered towards diagnosis and care of patients with primary immune deficiency diseases. Together with Nassau County Medical Center I established an ACGME accredited Allergy and Immunology Fellowship program. In that position I also established the Pediatric HIV Program and secured funding to become a site for the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials, subsequently known as IMPAACT (International Maternal, Pediatric, Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials) network. I was appointed co-leader of the Immunology and Inflammation Center of Excellence at the Feinstein Research Institute and directed an HIV immunology research program. In 2005, I was recruited to the University of Miami, where I established the Miami Center for AIDS Research, of which I am the Director since its inception in 2007. I have also been leading the CFAR’s Laboratory Sciences Core and have remained a member of the IMPAACT. I have close to 350 peer reviewed research publications and book chapters and have served on several HIV/AIDS review panels. My research includes developmental immunology, Immunologic components of Aging and HIV, Substance Abuse and HIV, HIV Pathogenesis including role of inflammation in HIV disease complications, HIV reservoirs, and strategies aimed to cure HIV/AIDS. My current research extends to populations in the USA, Europe, and Africa and is funded by grants from the NIH and Foundation funding in Italy. -
Education & Training
Education
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
I have always had post-doctoral fellows in my research projects and now also have graduate students as well as some undergraduates or high school students on occasion. It is a delight to interact with young minds and I find their participation in research stimulating and fruitful. Some ideas from my students have yielded new insights and new directions of research. I believe that students are an invaluable asset for conducting research and it is a pleasure to see them grow into successful scientists and leaders of tomorrow. -
Research Interests
I am an immunologist interested in immune development across the life span, from childhood to old age and am fascinated by the changes that occur across the lifespan. An important question is why aging is associated with increased susceptibility to infections, cancers, comorbid conditions like heart disease and neurocognitive decline. A puzzling fact is that patients with HIV/AIDS exhibit features of premature aging. Thus studying the immune system in biologic aging in people with and without HIV is likely to provide important clues to the mysteries of aging. As a probe to the function of the immune system, I have utilized response to influenza vaccine which requires an intact immune system for optimal response. Understanding mechanisms that disrupt this response has provided interesting clues which we are still investigating. I am studying the interaction of T follicular helper cells (Tfh) and B cells in stimulating antibody responses to vaccines. In this scenario, I have now included people engaged in substance abuse, particularly opioids, because this is a national crisis. I hope that my work will provide insights which will lead to a better understanding of a future opioid vaccine to overcome the addiction. My group has utilized the non-human primates to investigate immunomodulatory therapies with the cytokine interleukin 21 for enhancing immunity in aging and for understanding cellular mechanisms at play, particularly its role in amplifying Tfh function and improving Ab responses. Studying children with HIV acquired by mother to child transmission of the virus has provided important insights into immune development in infancy. Our goal is to unravel immunologic mechanisms involved in controlling HIV in acute HIV infection in infancy and how timing of antiretroviral drug initiation can help us develop strategies to cure HIV or achieve permanent remission. Regarding other infectious diseases, I am interested in TB, malaria and COVID-19 and have been involved in research related to these infections and vaccine approaches. Our lab utilizes state of art immunologic assays to answer our research questions; having access to the CFAR Core Lab is a great asset. -
Publications
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Professional Activities
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