Skip Menu Navigate: Select to Navigate... - NeuroID - Faculty - Calendar - Courses - Resources NeuroID Faculty Calendar Courses Resources Faculty Noelle Anastasio, Ph.D. Close Noelle Anastasio, Ph.D. Research Interests:Prevention and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.Individual differences in behavioral disinhibition and decision-making with respect to the development and maintenance of chronic neuropsychiatric disorders.Glutamatergic neurotransmission and disinhibition of cortical top-down output in different facets of impulsive-compulsive traits.Dr. Anastasio's UTMB profile David Beasley, Ph.D. Close David Beasley, Ph.D. Research Interests:Molecular basis of virulence and antigenic variations between West Nile virus (WNV) strainsArbovirus vaccines and diagnostics Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)Animal models for infectious diseasesDr. Beasley's UTMB profile Dennis Bente, DVM, Ph.D. Close Dennis Bente, DVM, Ph.D. Research Interests:Pathogenesis and transmission of tick‐borne hemorrhagic fever viruses, BSL4, hemorrhagic fevers, animal models, tick vector biology, host‐vector‐virus interactions.Dr. Bente's UTMB profile Anish Bhardwaj, MD, MBA, MS, FAHA, FCCM, FAAN, FANA, CPE Close Anish Bhardwaj, MD, MBA, MS, FAHA, FCCM, FAAN, FANA, CPE Research Interests:Neuroprotective clinical trials in focal cerebral ischemia Monitoring techniques in critically ill patients with acute brain injury from diverse etiologiesIn vivo pathophysiological mechanisms of ischemic neuronal injury in appropriate animal models of cerebral ischemiaIn vivo regional neurochemistry in brain injury paradigmsPathophysiological mechanisms in cerebral ischemia-evoked cerebral edema Pharmacological neuroprotection in ischemic strokeOsmotherapy in brain injuryDr. Bhardwaj's UTMB Profile Gerald Campbell, MD, Ph.D. Close Gerald Campbell, MD, Ph.D. Research Interests:Blood-Brain BarrierCerebral Small Vessel DiseaseHistopathology of Viral EncephalitisDr. Cambell's UTMB profile Irma "Lisa" Cisneros, Ph.D. Close Irma "Lisa" Cisneros, Ph.D. Research Interests:Opioid self-administration, impulsivity and CNS innate immunityCocaine and regulation of astrocyte mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) protein during CNS viral infectionHIV-1 and cocaine astrocyte-induced innate immunity: AIM(2)ing at the inflammasomeDr. Cisneros' UTMB profile Joaquin Cortiella, MD Close Joaquin Cortiella, MD Research Interests:BioengineeringPulmonary Physiology and Lung Replacement Kathryn Cunningham, Ph.D. Close Kathryn Cunningham, Ph.D. Research Interests:Neuropsychopharmacology of abused drugs and psychotherapeuticsNeurobiology of behaviorNew target and drug discovery in neuropsychiatric conditionsDr. Cunningham's UTMB profile Kelly Dineley, Ph.D. Close Kelly Dineley, Ph.D. Research Interests:Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and related amyloidopathies, tauopathies, synucleinopathies.Animal models for cognitive decline in neurodegenerative disease utilizing genetic and pharmacological manipulations.Cocaine abuse and cue-induced relapse following abstinence; protection with PPARγ nuclear receptor agonism.Nuclear receptor (PPARγ), ERK MAPK, CREB, CBP, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, protein-protein interactions.Omics approaches to generate hypotheses that test key players and mechanisms for cognitive and operant disorders resulting from aging, neurodegenerative disease, and drug abuse.Dr. Dineley's UTMB profile Janice Endsley, Ph.D. Close Janice Endsley, Ph.D. Research Interests:Mechanisms and regulation of cell mediated immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb).Natural killer cell function in infectious disease (M.tb, B. anthracis) and reproduction. Identify mechanisms whereby the CD8+T cell subset can be targeted by vaccine adjuvants and/or antigens.Dr. Endsley's UTMB profile Mark Endsley, Ph.D. Close Mark Endsley, Ph.D. Research Interests:HIV-1MacrophagesHuman IgA-inducing proteinDr. Endlsey's UTMB profile Eliseo Eugenin, Ph.D. Close Eliseo Eugenin, Ph.D. Research Interests:The role of cellular communication through gap junctions, tunneling nanotubes, hemichannels and ATP receptors during the pathogenesis of NeuroHIV. Identification of brain Biomarkers of dementia.GlioblastomasHeart disease and cell to cell communication Dr. Eugenin's UTMB profile Michelle Felicella, MD Close Michelle Felicella, MD Research Interests:Brain tumorsNeurodegenerative diseasesDr. Felicella's UTMB profile Alex Freiberg, Ph.D. Close Alex Freiberg, Ph.D. Research Interests:Molecular mechanisms by which emerging RNA viruses cause encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever diseases.Host innate immune response and activation of cellular signaling pathways following viral infection, with a major interest on infections caused by Nipah and Hendra viruses, Tick-borne encephalitis viruses, as well as Rift Valley fever virus.Dr. Freiburg's UTMB profile Nisha Garg, Ph.D. Close Nisha Garg, Ph.D. Research Interests:Oxidative response networks and inflammation in Chagasic Cardiomyopathy.Vaccine efficacy against T. cruzi and Chagas disease.Strategies for the elimination of tropical infectious diseases. Dr. Garg's UTMB profile Ben Gelman, MD, PhD Close Ben Gelman, MD, PhD Research Interests:Neuropathogenesis of HIV infection.Dr. Gelman's UTMB profile Thomas Green, Ph.D. Close Thomas Green, Ph.D. Research Interests:The role of frustration in neuropsychiatric conditionsEnvironmental enrichment and protective phenotypes for addiction- and depression-related behavior in ratsDr. Green's UTMB profile Jonathan Hommel, Ph.D. Close Jonathan Hommel, Ph.D. Research Interests:Obesity and eating disordersCNS circuits that regulate food addiction and motivation for energy-dense foodsViral-mediated gene knockdown, immunohistochemistry, neuronal tracing, and fluorescent in situ hybridization in multiple animal models of eating behavior and obesity Haitao Hu, Ph.D. Close Haitao Hu, Ph.D. Research Interests: Host-virus interactions and antiviral immunity in HIV/AIDS and emerging viral infections. Countermeasures to combat these life-threatening viral diseases.Dr. Hu's UTMB profile Tetsuro Ikegami, Ph.D. Close Tetsuro Ikegami, Ph.D. Research Interests:To understand the pathological mechanisms caused by viral virulence factors, we characterize host responses to NSs or NSm/78kD proteins or their mutants using the reverse genetics approach. We newly generated the RVax-1 candidate vaccine, which encodes 566 silent mutations and a deletion of 78kD/NSm gene in the MP-12 strain backbone. In collaboration with UTMB SIVS, we characterize the safety and protective efficacy of this candidate vaccine. We characterize nonpathogenic phleboviruses to generate live chimeric vaccine candidates to protect from pathogenic bunyaviruses. We investigate molecular mechanisms of potent antivirals for RVF.Dr. Ikegami's UTMB profile Balaji Krishnan, Ph.D. Close Balaji Krishnan, Ph.D. Research Interests:Synaptic Mechanisms Involved in Long-term Memory MechanismsDr. Krishnan's UTMB profile Tomoko Makishima, MD, Ph.D., FACS Close Tomoko Makishima, MD, Ph.D., FACS Research Interests:Molecular biology and genetics of the inner earAuditory and vestibular disorders (human and mouse models)Balance disorders, hearing loss, and deafnessDr. Makishima's UTMB profile Maria Micci, Ph.D. Close Maria Micci, Ph.D. Research Interests:Nanopulsed laser therapy for the treatment of traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative brain disorders and the development of mechanisms for resistance to Alzheimer’s disease.Neural stem cells and stem cell transplantation.Dr. Micci's UTMB profile Massoud Motamedi, Ph.D. Close Massoud Motamedi, Ph.D. Research Interests:Development of a multi-modal imaging platform for high-resolution cellular and molecular imaging of the retina.Dr. Motamedi's UTMB profile Slobodan Paessler, DVM, Ph.D. Close Slobodan Paessler, DVM, Ph.D. Research Interests:Molecular biology Viral pathogenesis Vaccine/antivirals Diagnostics developmentDr. Paessler's UTMB profile Brendan Prideaux, Ph.D. Close Brendan Prideaux, Ph.D. Research Interests:Pathogenic mechanisms of infectious disease using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry and imaging technologies. Elucidating host-pathogen interactions at the cellular level.MSI-based lipidomic and metabolomic techniques to study the in-situ pathogenesis of many viral and bacterial infectious diseases including HIV, Tuberculosis, Cerebral Malaria, Meliodosis, and Pneumonic Plague.Dr. Prideaux's UTMB profile Shannan Rossi, Ph.D. Close Shannan Rossi, Ph.D. Research Interests:Arboviruses, Zika virus, vaccines, alphaviruses, flaviviruses, and animal models.Dr. Rossi's UTMB profile Robin Stephens, Ph.D. Close Robin Stephens, Ph.D. Research Interests:CD4+ T cell memory to blood stages of Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi (AS), mouse malariaEffector function (Th1, Tfh) commitment in memory cells in malariaVaccine strategies to generate protective effector memory T cellsB cell memory and splenic microenvironmentDr. Stephens' UTMB profile Elizabeth Salisbury, Ph.D. Close Elizabeth Salisbury, Ph.D. Research Interests:Musculoskeletal diseasesCartilage and bone regenerationTissue engineeringSkeletal stem cells Dr. Salisbury's UTMB profile Heidi Spratt, Ph.D. Close Heidi Spratt, Ph.D. Research Interests:BiostatisticsBioinformaticsBiomarker discoveryMachine learningDr. Spratt's UTMB profile Jiaren Sun, MD, Ph.D. Close Jiaren Sun, MD, Ph.D. Research Interests:Immune responses to virus infection and inflammatory diseasesZika, dengue, yellow fever, hepatitis C, and West Nile virusesDr. Sun's UTMB profile Gracie Vargas, Ph.D. Close Gracie Vargas, Ph.D. Research Interests:Investigation and application of emerging optical techniques for monitoring of disease processes or injury.Tissue microstructure and optical signals.Dr. Vargas' UTMB profile Nikos Vasilakis, Ph.D., FASTMH Close Nikos Vasilakis, Ph.D., FASTMH Research Interests:Basic research on evolution and pathogenesis of arthropod-borne viruses, virus – mosquito, virus – host interactions and vaccine development.Role of viral intra-genic variation in transmission dynamics and emergence.Vaccine development.Discovery and characterization of novel/new viruses.Dr. Vasilakis' UTMB profile Tian (Tina) Wang, Ph.D. Close Tian (Tina) Wang, Ph.D. Research Interests:Mechanisms of emerging and re-emerging RNA viruses, such as West Nile virus, Zika virus, Powassan virus, Chikungunya virus, and Sars-CoV-2.Host immune responses to viruses and candidate vaccines, vaccine development, and antiviral agents.Dr. Wang's UTMB profile Scott Weaver, MS, Ph.D. Close Scott Weaver, MS, Ph.D. Research Interests:Ecology, epidemiology, evolution, and pathogenesis of arboviral diseases; vaccine development.Dr. Weaver's UTMB profile Ping Wu, MD, Ph.D. Close Ping Wu, MD, Ph.D. Research Interests:Molecular mechanisms of plasticity, multipotential and trophic factor secretion of neural stem cells (NSCs).Applying both human and rodent NSCs and their differentiated neural cells to mimic traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, alcohol and cocaine abuse, neural infection (such as Zika virus, henipavirus, and HIV), and neurodegenerative diseases such ALS.Dr. Wu's UTMB profile Wenbo Zhang, Ph.D. Close Wenbo Zhang, Ph.D. Research Interests:Mechanisms of retinal injury in ischemic retinopathy such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and glaucoma.Pathology of ischemic retinopathy: retinal neuronal injury, retinal vascular leakage and degeneration, and retinal pathological angiogenesis.Dr. Zhang's UTMB profile Jia Zhou, Ph.D. Close Jia Zhou, Ph.D. Research Interests:Medicinal chemistry and drug discovery of novel small molecules as unique pharmacological tools or potential drug candidates for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders and infectious diseases.Dr. Zhou's UTMB profile
