Cohen Research Group

Development of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for human herpesviruses, studies of genetic variants and immune defects in persons with severe virus infections.

Jeffrey I. Cohen, M.D.

Chief, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases
Chief, Medical Virology Section

Provides direct clinical care to patients at NIH Clinical Center

Education:

M.D., Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Cohen received his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University and was a resident in medicine at Duke University. Following a medical staff fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he was a clinical fellow in infectious diseases at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in medicine at Harvard University. He returned to NIH, where he was the chief of the Medical Virology Section in the Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases until 2010. In June 2010, Dr. Cohen became chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases.

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Mir A. Ali, Ph.D.

Biologist

Education:

Ph.D., Biochemistry-Immunology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India

Languages Spoken: Urdu, Hindi, Tamil

Biologist at NIAID, NIH since 1999 (in the Medical Virology Section first at LCI then LCID and now LID). 

Design and validate antibody assays for human herpesvirus antigens to monitor the efficacy of human herpesvirus vaccines generated by the group.  Analysis of antibody levels in recipients of the zoster vaccine Shingrix (RZV) who have chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Studies of patients with EBV...

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Wei Bu, Ph.D.

Staff Scientist

Education:

Ph.D., Rutgers Medical School, New Jersey

Languages Spoken: Mandarin, Chinese

Dr. Bu received his Ph.D. from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Frederick National Laboratory from 2007 to 2010 to study the function of human host restriction factor APOBEC3 proteins. He joined Dr. Cohen’s section in 2010 as a research fellow and became a staff scientist. His research focuses on vaccine development and antibody discovery to prevent Epstein-Barr...

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Kennichi Dowdell, Ph.D.

Education:

Ph.D., Neuroscience, Ohio State University
B.S., Biology, B.A., Psychology, Indiana University of PA

Support all lab projects and general lab functions. Work to determine the underlying genetic and immunological changes associated with the pathology of uncontrolled viral infections.

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Anna Elizabeth Hostal, B.S.

Postbaccalaureate Research Fellow

Education:

B.S., Biochemistry, minor in Spanish, Arizona State University 

Languages Spoken: Spanish

Anna Hostal is currently developing monoclonal antibodies for Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and investigating their interaction with viral antigens. Through this work she hopes to better understand the mechanisms of viral fusion to inform the rational design of future therapeutics and vaccines.

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Tammy A. Krogmann, B.A., B.S.

Biologist

Education:

B.A., English, University of Minnesota Duluth
B.S., Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth

Have performed studies to identify viruses in human tissues, evaluation of specimens from subjects for COVID-19 studies, cloning for VZV and EBV projects, and antibody discovery for EBV.

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Lui Phillip Suzuki-Williams, B.S.

IRTA Trainee

Education:

B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia

Lui Suzuki-Williams is developing an assay to measure the efficacy of mAb and vaccine sera to block HSV-2 cell-cell fusion. He is working on a longitudinal COVID-19 study and an HSV-2 animal study. His research interests include immunology, infectious diseases, and virology.

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Alexander Charles Vostal M.D.

Clinical Research Fellow

Education:

M.D., Uniform Services School of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
B.S., Microbiology/Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Dr. Alexander Vostal is an active-duty officer in the United States Public Health Service and a Clinical Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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Kening Wang, M.D.

Staff Scientist

Education:

M.D., Zhejiang University Medical School (former Zhejiang Medical University), Hangzhou, Zhejiang, P.R. China

Languages Spoken: Chinese

Joined NIAID in 1992. Current research focuses on herpes simplex virus (HSV) prevention including designing, producing, and characterizing novel HSV-2 vaccine candidates, and developing animal models for characterizing HSV-2 vaccine candidates.

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