Vaccines and Chemotherapeutics for Viral Infections

Research in my laboratory focuses on the development and use of in vitro and in vivo models to explore the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and their use to evaluate strategies for disease prevention and treatment.

One of our principle areas of interest has been the study of genital and neonatal herpes simplex virus infections. Using mouse and guinea pig models we have explored the pathogenesis of these infections and evaluated a number of prophylactic and therapeutic immunization strategies. In addition we have studied chemoprophylactics to prevent infections and antiviral agents for their treatment.
We have also used in vivo models to explore a number of congenital infections of clinical importance including cytomegalovirus and toxoplasmosis.

In addition in collaboration with a number of researchers at UTMB we have established an in vitro screening program to identify putative new antiviral agents against Hepatitis C virus using a unique replicon based assay system. We are currently extending these antiviral studies to other medically important viruses such as West Nile Virus.