Global Biothreats and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Emerging infectious diseases can be defined as infectious diseases that have newly appeared in a population or have previously existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range. Biodefense pathogens are those that pose a risk to national security and/or public health, as defined by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID’s) list of category A, B, or C priority pathogens.
Research related to these urgent health threats encompasses a broad spectrum of themes, including investigations of pathogenicity and host responses, vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic technologies.
The following interdisciplinary faculty conduct research and instruct fellows in this area:
Agaisse, Hervé
Genetic approaches, cellular and molecular biology of intracellular pathogen infection
Engel, Daniel A.
Drug Discovery and Molecular Biology of Pathogenic RNA viruses: Ebola, SARS-CoV-2, Influenza and Zika
Hewlett, Erik L.
Structure and Function of Bacterial Toxins: Roles in Microbial Pathogenesis and Uses in Biomedical Research
Kasson, Peter M.
Physical mechanisms of infectious disease; influenza infection; membrane fusion; antibiotic resistance; molecular dynamics simulation; machine learning.
Mann, Barbara J.
SARS CoV-2 Vaccines and Therapeutics; Pathogenicity of Francisella tularensis and vaccines
Moonah, Shannon N.
Host-pathogen interactions; molecular parasitology; mucosal inflammation; immunopathology and repair. Our research interests evolved from studying a parasite that causes inflammation of the gut, similar to IBD.
Tamm, Lukas K.
Biomembrane Structure and Function; Cell Entry of Enveloped Viruses; Neurosecretion by Exocytosis; Structure of Bacterial Pathogen Membrane Proteins; Lipid-Protein Interactions
Taniuchi, Mami
Molecular diagnostics; Polio eradication; tracking immunity and virus shedding after oral polio vaccination in resource-challenged countries.