Research

Division of Infectious Diseases:
RESEARCH

• ID Grants and Awards
  

  Research partner: Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda

Division faculty, supported by $16 million in extramural funding in FY 2014, 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 carba-penemases (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, antiviral 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. Of note, Dr. Eric Houpt was awarded two significant grants this year. His project “Next Generation Molecular Diagnostics for Developing Countries” funded for >$1.3M by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October 2013, will further develop and deploy molecular diagnostics for diarrheal diseases to global surveillance studies. Dr. Houpt’s project “Leveraging rotavirus networks”, a subcontract from the CDC Foundation funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for $690,690 in November will deploy diarrheal disease TaqMan Array cards to 3 World Health Organization laboratories to document rotavirus epidemiology and the role of other enteropathogens.

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.