Alan D. Barrett, PhD

Alan D. Barrett, PhD
Professor

Department of Pathology
Director, Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences
Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Member, Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Member, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity
Member, Experimental Pathology Graduate Program
Member, Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Program
Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Vaccine Research, Evaluation and Training for Emerging Infectious Diseases Member, Center for Tropical Diseases

Phone: (409) 772-6662
Email: abarrett@utmb.edu

Alan D. Barrett, PhD

  • Our laboratory is undertaking basic research on the development of vaccines against the flavivirus diseases. This includes West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever and dengue. We undertake studies on the excellent yellow fever 17D vaccine as a model to understand the molecular basis of attenuation of this vaccine. This is of major importance as the 17D vaccine virus is being used as an attenuated backbone to generate chimeric vaccine viruses against other flavivirus diseases, including dengue and Japanese encephalitis. In addition, recombinant DNA technology and infectious clone technology/reverse genetics are being used to identify molecular determinants of virulence of yellow fever, West Nile and Japanese encephalitis viruses with the aim of mutating these virulence determinants to develop candidate attenuated vaccine strains. We also investigate the moelcular epidmeiology of various flaviviruses (yellow fever, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, and St Louis encephalitis viruses).
  • BS University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K Microbiology & Virology 1978
    MS University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K Virology 1980
    PhD University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K Virology 1983
    Post-Doctoral Fellow Arbovirus Research Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK    
  • 2016 Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
    2014 Elected Fellow of the International Society for Vaccines
    2009-Present John D. Stobo, MD Distinguished Chair
    2008 Eagleson Lecturer, Annual Meeting of the American Biological Safety Association
    2004-2005 UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dr Leon Bromberg Professor for Excellence in Teaching
    2003-2005 American Society for Microbiology-Waksman Foundation for Microbiology lecturer
    • Founding Editor-in-chief npj Vaccines
    • Associate Editor: Vaccine (2010-2012)
    • Editor, Journal of General Virology (2005-2009)
    • Editorial Boards: Journal of Virological Methods (1999-), Journal of Medical Virology (2001-2018), Journal of Virology (2010-2018), Pan Amazonian Health Journal (2009-), Virology (2013-), Journal of General Virology (1989-93, 2010-2015), and Clinical Immunology and Vaccines (2016-2018)
    • Member, American Society for Virology, American Society for Microbiology, International Society for Vaccines and Society for General Microbiology
    1. Xie G, Welte T, Wang J, Whiteman MC, Wicker JA, Saxena V, Cong Y, BARRETT AD, Wang T. A West Nile virus NS4B-P38G mutant strain induces adaptive immunity via TLR7-MyD88-dependent and independent signaling pathways. Vaccine. 2013 Aug 28;31(38):4143-51. PMID:23845800
    2. Schuh AJ, Guzman H, Tesh RB, and BARRETT ADT Genetic diversity of Japanese encephalitis virus isolates obtained from the Indonesian archipelago between 1974 and 1987. Vector Borne Zoonotic Diseases 13(7):479-88, 2013. PMID: 23590316
    3. Beck A, Tesh RB, Wood TJ, Widen SG, Ryman KD, BARRETT AD. Comparison of the Live Attenuated Yellow Fever Vaccine 17D-204 to its Virulent Parental Strain Asibi by Deep Sequencing. J Inf Dis 209:334-44, 2014. PMID:24141982
    4. Castillo-Carranza DL, Sengupta U, Guerrero-Muñoz MJ, Lasagna-Reeves CA, Gerson JE, Singh G, Estes DM, BARRETT AD, Dineley KT, Jackson GR, Kayed R. Passive immunization with Tau oligomer monoclonal antibody reverses tauopathy phenotypes without affecting hyperphosphorylated neurofibrillary tangles. J Neurosci. 34(12):4260-72, 2014. PMID: 24647946
    5. Schuh AS, Ward MJ, Leigh-Brown AJ and BARRETT ADT. Dynamics of the emergence and establishment of a newly dominant genotype of Japanese encephalitis virus throughout Asia. J Virol 88(8):4522-32, 2014. PMID: 24501419
    6. Berenson AB, Male E, Lee TG, BARRETT ADT, Sarpong KO, Rupp RE, Rahman M. Assessing the need for and acceptability of a free-of-charge postpartum HPV vaccination program. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 210(3):213.e1-7, 2014. PMID:24280248
    7. Maillard RA, Liu T, Beasley DW, BARRETT ADT, Hilser VJ, Lee JC. Thermodynamic Mechanism for the Evasion of Antibody Neutralization in Flaviviruses. J Am Chem Soc. 136 (29): 10315-24, 2014. PMID: 24950171
    8. Duggal NK, Bosco-Lauth A, Bowen RA, Wheeler SS, Reisen WK, Felix TA, Mann BR, Swetnam DM, BARRETT ADT, Brault AC Evidence for co-evolution of West Nile virus and house sparrows in North America" PLoS Neg Trop Dis,8(10):e3262, 2014. PMID: 25357248
    9. Whiteman MC, Popov V, Sherman MB, Wen J and BARRETT ADT. Attenuated West Nile virus mutant NS1130-132QQA/175A/207A exhibits virus-induced ultrastructural changes and accumulation of protein in the Endoplasmic Reticulum.J Virol. 2015 Jan 15;89(2):1474-8.. PMID: 25392222
    10. Sarathy VV, White M, Li L, Gorder SR, Pyles RB, Campbell GA, Milligan GN, Bourne N, and BARRETT ADT. A lethal murine infection model for dengue virus 3 in AG129 mice deficient in Type I and II interferon receptors leads to systemic disease. J Virol. 2015 Jan 15;89(2):1254-66. PMID: 25392217
    11. Fuchs J, Chu H, O’Day P, Pyles R, Bourne N, Das, S, Milligan, GN, Stinchcomb, DT, BARRETT ADT, Partidos CD and Osorio JE. Investigating the Efficacy of Monovalent and Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine Formulations against DENV-4 Challenge in AG129 Mice. Vaccine, 2014 32(48):6537-43. PMID: 2523948.
    12. Xie G, Whiteman MC, Wicker JA, BARRETT ADT, Wang T. In vitro analysis of MyD88-mediated cellular immune response to West Nile virus mutant strain infection. J Vis Exp. 2014 Nov 27;(93):e52121. PMID: 25489855
    13. Xie G, Luo H, Tian B, Mann B, Bao X, McBride J, Tesh R, BARRETT ADT, Wang T. A West Nile virus NS4B-P38G mutant strain induces cell intrinsic innate cytokine responses in human monocytic and macrophage cells. Vaccine. 2015 33(7):869-78.PMID: 25562791.
    14. Zhang J, Wang J, Pang L, Xie G, Welte T, Saxena, V, Wicker J, Mann B, Soong S, BARRETT ADT, Born W, O™Brien R, Wang T. The co-stimulatory effects of MyD88-dependent toll-like receptor signaling on activation of murine γδ T cells. PLoS ONE, PLoS One. 2014 Sep 18;9(9):e108156. PMID: 2523283.
    15. Pitcher TJ, Sarathy VV, Matsui K, Gromowski GD, Huang CY, BARRETT ADT. Functional Analysis of DENV-2 Envelope Protein Domain 3 Type-Specific and DENV Complex-Reactive Critical Epitope Residues. J Gen Virol. 2015; 96(Pt 2):288-93. PMID: 25351518.
    16. Castillo-Carranza DL, Guerrero-Munoz MJ, Sengupta U, Hernandez C, BARRETT ADT, Dineley K, Kayed R. Tau immunotherapy modulates both pathological tau and upstream amyloid pathology in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. J Neurosci. 2015 Mar 25;35(12):4857-68. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4989-14.2015. PMID: 25810517
    17. Milligan GN, Sarathy VV, Killingbeck, Infante E, Li L, Campbell GA, Beatty PR, Harris E, BARRETT ADT and Bourne N. A dengue virus type 4 model of disseminated lethal infection in AG129 mice. PLoS ONE. 2015 May 4;10(5):e0125476. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125476. eCollection 2015.PMID:25938762.
    18. Pinto A, Brien J, Lam CY, Johnson S, Chiang C, Hiscott J, Sarathy VV, BARRETT ADT, Shresta S, Diamond M. Defining new therapeutics using a more immunocompetent mouse model of antibody-enhanced Dengue virus infection. mBio 2015 Sep 15;6(5). pii: e01316-15. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01316-15. PMID: 2637412
    19. Huang YJS, Harbin JN, Hettenbch SM, Maki E, Cohnstaedt L, BARRETT ADT, Higgs S and Vanlandingham DL. Susceptibility of a North American Culex quinquefasciatus to Japanese encephalitis virus Vector-Borne Zoonotic Dis Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2015 Nov;15(11):709-11. doi: 10.1089/vbz.2015.1821.PMID: 26565775
    20. Sarathy VV, Infante E, Li L, Campbell GA, Wang T, Paessler S, Beatty PR, Harris E, Milligan GN, Bourne N, BARRETT ADT 2015. Characterization of lethal DENV-4 TVP-376 infection in mice lacking both alpha/beta and gamma interferon receptors leads to systemic disease. J Gen Virol. 2015 Oct;96(10):3035-48. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.000246. Epub 2015 Jul 14. PMID:262963.
    21. Xie G, Luo H, Pang L, Peng B, Winkel E, McGrude B, Hesse JL, Whiteman MC, Campbell GA, Cong Y, BARRETT ADT, Wang T. Dysregulation of TLR7 compromises innate and adaptive T cell responses and host resistance to an attenuated West Nile virus infection in old mice. J Virol. 2015 Nov 18;90(3):1333-44. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02488-15. PMID:26581984

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