Nikos Vasilakis, PhD, FASTMH
Dr. Vasilakis is currently a professor with
tenure and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology at the
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, as well as a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He
earned his BA and MA degrees in biology from Hofstra University and
worked for a number of years in the pharmaceutical industry, where he
developed vaccine candidates for pediatric diseases based on alphavirus
gene delivery systems.
He returned to academia to obtain his PhD degree from UTMB, studying the
mechanisms of emergence of sylvatic dengue in the lab of Scott Weaver.
After a brief postdoctoral position at the University of Pittsburgh, he
came back to UTMB, where his laboratory studies the evolution and
pathogenesis of arthropod-borne viruses, virus–mosquito, and virus–host
interactions, for which he developed in partnership with collaborators
field study sites in Borneo, Malaysia and Central and South America.
Additionally, as a member of the World Reference Center for Emerging
Viruses and Arboviruses (WRCEVA), he utilizes Next Generation Sequencing
(NGS) to discover, characterize and annotate new and novel viruses that
could lead to the development of successful countermeasures for a
number of veterinary and human diseases.
Dr. Vasilakis' Lab website
Email: nivasila@utmb.edu