Research

RESEARCH: Infectious Diseases

Division faculty, supported by $21 million in extramural funding in FY2013, conduct research of critical national and international importance, including the development of vaccines, diagnostic tools, and treatments for a variety of infectious diseases.

Areas of focus include:

Polio and rotavirus vaccines in the developing world (Petri)
Molecular epidemiology of plasmid-encoded carbapenemases (Mathers)
Respiratory infections (Hughes)
Tuberculosis (Heysell, Houpt, Thomas)
Molecular epidemiology of gastrointestinal parasites, including amebiasis and cryptosporidiosis (Gilchrist)
Novel anaerobic antimicrobial agent Amixicile (Hoffman)
Live attenuated vaccines for prevention of tularemia (Mann)
Sepsis management in HIV-infected patients in Uganda (Moore)
Anti-IL-23 for Clostridium difficile (Petri)
Anthrax therapy by blocking TNF signaling (Scheld)
Mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms (Sifri)
Broadly neutralizing HIV vaccines (Yuan)

Faculty conduct clinical trials of vaccines, immune modulators, anti-viral agents, antifungals and antibiotics and have expertise in parasitology, bacteriology mycology, and virology as well as in epidemiology, clinical trials and host genetic susceptibility to infection.

The division’s international and global research partnerships are one of its great strengths. UVA faculty work collaboratively with university-based colleagues in many countries, with major partnerships at sites in Bangladesh, Brazil, Haiti, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. A major five-year initiative, funded by a $15 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation addresses the critical issue of oral vaccination against polio and rotavirus in the developing world. Other major international research programs focus on access to potable water in South Africa, and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

At UVA, faculty are developing new or improved ways to treat, diagnose or prevent infections from amebiasis, anthrax, tularemia, C.difficile, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, pneumonia and other emerging infectious diseases.