Media Experts Guide

Alan Barrett, Ph.D.

Vaccines Expert

Position Director, Sealy Center for Vaccine Development John S. Dunn Distinguished Chair in Biodefense Professor, Department of Pathology

Expertise / Area(s) of Interest Dr. Barrett’s research interests are the molecular basis of pathogenesis and vaccine development focusing on tick-borne encephalitis, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile and yellow fever. He is a member of the World Health Organization dengue vaccines clinical trials taskforce and the DengueNet diagnostics program. He is an editor of the Journal of General Virology and sits on the editorial boards of Virus Research, Journal of Medical Virology and Journal of Virological Methods. He is a member of the virus diseases panel of the military infectious diseases research program and a member of the scientific advisory panel of the Singapore Environmental Health Institute. From 2004-2008, he served as chair of the World Health Organization steering committee on vaccine development for dengue and other flaviviriuses. He is past director of the BSL3 laboratories of UTMB’s department of pathology and served as vice chair for research in the department of pathology from 2001-2005. Dr. Barratt received his doctoral and master’s degree in virology at the University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K. He completed his postdoctoral training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, and was head of the molecular microbiology research group at the University of Surrey, U.K.. In 1993 he joined UTMB as an associate professor and in 1997 he was named professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology.

Recent Media / Articles Vasconcelos PFC, Bryant JE, Travassos da Rosa APA, Tesh RB, Rodrigues SG and Barrett ADT Genetic divergence and dispersal of yellow fever virus in Brazil: periodic expansions of the enzootic zone. Emerg Inf Dis 10: 1578-84, 2004 Beasley DWC, Holbrook MR, Travassos da Rosa APA, Coffey L, Carrara A-S, Phillippi-Falkenstein K, Bohm RP, Ratterree MS, Ludwig GV, Estrada-Franco J, Weaver SC, Tesh RB, Shope RE and BARRETT ADT. Detection of antibodies to West Nile virus in mouse, monkey and horse sera using a recombinant envelope protein subunit antigen. J Clin Micro 42: 2759-65, 2004 Gerrard SR, Li L, BARRETT ADT and Nichol ST. Ngari virus is a bunyamwera virus reassortant that can be associated with large outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in Africa. J. Virol 78: 8922-26, 2004 Beasley DWC, Li L, Suderman MT, Guirakhoo F, Trent DW, Monath TP, Shope RE and BARRETT ADT Protection against Japanese encephalitis virus strains representing four genotypes by passive transfer of -JE experimental vaccine. Vaccine 22, 3722-26,?sera raised against ChimeriVax 2004 Holbrook MR, Shope RE and BARRETT ADT. Differential diagnosis of tick-borne encephalitis serocomplex flaviviruses using recombinant E protein domain III-based ELISA assays. J Clin Micro 42: 4101-10, 2004 Mutebi JP, Gianella A, Travassos da Rosa APA, Tesh RB, BARRETT ADT and Higgs S. Infectivity of yellow fever virus for Bolivian Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Emerg Inf Dis 10: 1657-60, 2004 Volk DE, Beasley DWC, Kallick DA, Holbrook MR, BARRETT ADT and Gorenstein DG. Solution structure and antibody binding studies of domain III from the envelope protein of the New York strain of West Nile virus. J Biol Chem 279: 38755-61, 2004 Volk DE, Kallick DA, Holbrook MR, Beasley DWC, BARRETT ADT and Gorenstein DG. Letter to the Editor: 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments for domain III of the West Nile virus envelope protein. J Biomol NMR 29: 445-6, 2004 Yu S, Wuu A, Basu R, Holbrook MR, BARRETT ADT and Lee JC. Protein stability and structural dynamics of envelope protein domain III of mosquito- and tick-borne flaviviruses. Biochemistry 43: 9168-76, 2004 Mutebi JP, Rijnbrand RCA, Wang H, Ryman KD, Wang E, Fulop LD, Titball R, and BARRETT ADT. Genetic Relationships and Evolution of Genotypes of Yellow Fever Virus and other Members of the Yellow Fever Virus Group within the Flavivirus Genus. J Virol 78: 9652-65, 2004 Ratterree MC, Gutierrez RA, Travassos da Rosa A, Dille BJ, Beasley DWC, Bohm RP, Deasi SM, Didier PJ, Bikenmeyer LG, Dawson GJ, Leary TP, Schochetman G, Phillippi-Falkenstein K, Arroyo J, BARRETT ADT and Tesh RB. Experimental infection of rhesus monkeys with West Nile virus: level and duration of viremia and kinetics of the antibody response following infection. J. Inf Dis 189: 669-676, 2004 Li L, Rollin PE, Nichol ST, Shope RE, BARRETT ADT and Holbrook, MR. Molecular determinants of antigenicity of two subtypes of the tick-borne flavivirus Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus. J Gen Virol 85: 1619-24, 2004

Recent Publications Flavivirus DNA vaccine with a kick, Nature Biotechnology, May 2008

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