The goal of this research is to understand how the Rv2623 protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterial pathogen that causes tuberculosis, regulates growth of this bacterium in an infected person, including in the context of the development of a dormant/latent infection, with the ultimate goal of designing novel treatment for tuberculous infection.

To obtain funds for Ms. Angelica Olmo-Fontanez to cover her research in Aging and tuberculosis in Dr. Torrelles laboratory.

The proposed studies aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying B-cell dysfunction and developing novel immune modulation strategies to decrease inflammation and B-cell dysfunction could have a significant impact on the course of HIV infection, as well as a number of other autoimmune chronic inflammatory diseases associated with B-cell defects.

The major goal of this project is to determine levels of anti-Ebola virus glycoprotein antibodies in nonhuman primates vaccinated off-site with anti-Ebola virus vaccines.

In 2017, an estimated 10 million people developed TB disease, demonstrating an urgent need for new approaches to therapy, including host-directed therapy (HDT), to halt infection and progression of active TB. To this end, the overall goal of our ongoing research program is to identify intracellular ?master regulators? of inflammation and metabolic intermediates that dictate human macrophage responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection as a strategy to identify potential host cell targets for HDT.

Many genes including those associated with viral infections undergo differential splicing in different human populations. The aim of this study is to identify and quantify these differences and investigate their role in differential antiviral immunity among human populations.

The major goal of this project is to use a new tool like CRISPR/Cas13d to cleave HIV RNA. An HIV RNA-targeting strategy that efficiently and simultaneously targets multiple conserved sites , will result in the eradication of HIV from the cells.

The goals of this application are to evaluate social buffering effects on cognitive decline associated with aging, as well as investigate potential biological markers of brain aging.

To determine if a modified BCG vaccine is efficient in treating bladder cancer using the mouse model. Mouse experiments will be performed by Dr. Svatek at UT-Health SA, thus, he will get his institutional IACUC approval.

18-150 The goal is to send inactivated Zika virus infection of marmosets for analysis using nanotechnology. Role: Sub PI