Research
The Division's primary research interests are malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging infections.

Malaria

Malaria has been a historical focus of the Division since its inception with both laboratory and field based studies presently.  There are two active investigators with malaria as their primary focus within the Division, OraLee Branch and Julian Rayner.  Julian's focus is on the basic biology and cell biology of attachment, invasion, and protein trafficking processes of the blood stages of the parasite.  OraLee's focus is presently on the immunology, genetics, and interactions of two species of malaria, Plasmodium vivax and falciparum, in areas with an expanding impact of these infections in northern Peru and India.  Debasish Chattopadhyay has completed structure-based studies on a number of malaria proteins and also brings collaborative expertise with protein chemistry and structural biology to this area.  John Adams, Ph.D. is a senior level malaria investigator who is being actively recruited with a focus on the apical organelles of the organism and their involvement in invasion including in the mosquito.  John has also developed a genetic manipulation technique with significant potential impact in the malaria field.

HIV

HIV became a programmatic focus for the Division primarily through the efforts of Sten Vermund, the previous Division Director.  The work in HIV in the Division is primarily in the areas of clinical and operational field-based studies.  Work initiated by Sten continues to be administered by the Division with ongoing studies on microbicides in Zambia.  Stewart Reid is the project director for these studies in Zambia and is also the Medical Director for the PEPFAR HIV management program.  Craig Wilson is the chair of the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions that is based and administered in the Division.  Craig is also the Director of the International Core of the UAB Center for AIDS Research and leads the CFAR's contributions to programs in Zambia and Jamaica.  Shashwatee Bagchi resides in Jamaica and coordinates clinical and capacity building efforts now centered at the University of the West Indies.  James Tang has collaborated with a number of HIV investigators on studies exploring immunogenetic and epigenetic factors and their contribution to HIV acquisition and disease progression.  Sibylle Kristensen has both assisted and now leads a number of training and capacity building programs in the HIV area.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a recently added programmatic focus for the Division.  Michael Kimerling joined the Division this past year and is the Director of the Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative.  The focus of the Initiative and Michael's work is capacity building and operational assessment of TB programs including operations research.  Michael has active programs in four countries: Kazakhstan, Honduras, Cambodia, Indonesia, and is developing a new initiative in Peru.  He is active on many WHO and international TB working groups.  In addition, with the challenges of HIV/TB co-management particularly in Africa, Michael has initiated a program in Zambia coordinated with CFAR efforts and working with Stewart Reid.  Michael has also coordinated recent efforts with Adrie Steyn and Michael Neiderweis, two TB-focused laboratory-based investigators in Microbiology.

Emerging Infections

Over the past few years Emerging Infections have become a more prominent interest within the Division.  David Freedman is the PI of the CDC-supported "Provider-Based Emerging Infections Sentinel Network" (GeoSentinel) which continuously surveys multiple international sites for evidence of disease occurrences.  A manuscript [817kB PDF] was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the first ten years of the group's work.  Tom Unnasch is a regional leader in the molecular epidemiology and ecology of multiple arboviral pathogens including Eastern Equine and West Nile viruses.  Tom is also now the PI of the Emerging Infections training grant at UAB.  Debasish Chattopadhyay is leading the structural biology core of the Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB) that is currently focusing on developing therapeutic agents for small pox infection.  Qianjun Li is developing a basic laboratory project focused on dengue viruses.