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H. Clifford Lane, M.D., is the Deputy Director of Clinical Research and Special Projects, the Director of the Division of Clinical Research Clinical Director of NIAID, and the Chief of the Clinical and Molecular Retrovirology Section. In the laboratory, Dr. Lane’s early work involved studies aimed at dissecting the normal immunoregulatory mechanisms that control the human immune response to specific antigen challenges. When the AIDS epidemic emerged, he became one of the first investigators to study immunopathogenic mechanisms of HIV disease, ultimately making seminal observations that helped establish the field of HIV immunopathogenesis.

Last Reviewed: April 18, 2024

Carolina Barillas-Mury, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chief of the Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section. The section investigates the interactions between the mosquito immune system and Plasmodium parasites to understand how they affect malaria transmission.

Last Reviewed: July 12, 2022

Alan Sher, Ph.D., is the Chief of the Immunobiology Section and Deputy Chief of the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases. The Immunobiology Section studies host resistance and immune regulation in parasitic and other infections of global importance. The ultimate goal of this work is immunologic disease intervention in the form of immunotherapy or vaccination.

Last Reviewed: October 21, 2019

Niki M. Moutsopoulos, D.D.S., Ph.D., is Chief of the Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome and the Chief of the Human Barrier Immunity Section.

Last Reviewed: February 20, 2025

IPPS studies how virulent pulmonary pathogens, including F. tularensis, B. pertussis, & SARS-CoV-2, evade and inhibit protective immunity in the lung. Our goal is to use this information to devleop novel therapeutics and vaccines against a variety of infectious diseases. We also aim to understand regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses in the lungs with a special emphasis on metabolism.

Last Reviewed: September 22, 2022

It's a fact of grant life: most applications do not succeed. If yours is one of them at NIH, you need to first spend some time identifying what went wrong.

Last Reviewed: September 13, 2024

Innovative Drug Delivery for Spinal Cord Injury: NurExone's Exosome-Based siRNA Therapy with FDA Endorsement and Expanding Pipeline for Neuronal Regeneration November 14, 2024 Presenter: Dr. Lior Shaltiel, CEO, NurExone Biologic Inc. NurExone is leading the advancement of drug delivery systems for CNS indications and specially in spinal cord injury treatment. Their cutting-edge exosome-based siRNA

Last Reviewed: November 13, 2024

Joseph Marcotrigiano, Ph.D., is the Chief of the Structural Virology Section. Our laboratory is committed to understanding how positive-sense RNA viruses enter human host cells, replicate, and evade the immune response.

Last Reviewed: August 9, 2022

Peter D. Crompton, M.D., M.P.H., is the Chief of the Malaria Infection Biology and Immunity Unit (MIBIU). In the MIBIU, we aim to apply recent advances in immunology and genomics-based technology to carefully conducted longitudinal cohort studies in malaria-endemic areas.

Last Reviewed: July 9, 2022

Last Reviewed: November 14, 2024

The Integrative Bioinformatics of Immune Systems (IBIS) Core is the central bioinformatic resource for all repertoire and “omics” studies in the VRC. Research areas include transcriptomic analysis of both innate and adaptive immune cells, T cell receptor repertoire analysis, B cell receptor sequence and phylogenetic analysis, and analysis of immune cell population dynamics.

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2022

The section uses biochemical & genetic tools to study bacterial diseases & the factors contributing to pathogenesis with focus on identification & analysis of bacterial virulence factors & their genetic regulation & on their mechanisms of action. Structure-function analysis of bacterial proteins uses expression, mutagenesis, functional assessment, structure determination by crystallography, etc.

Last Reviewed: September 22, 2022

Jordan Report: Accelerated Development of Vaccines (2002) from NIAID includes updates on vaccine research for specific infectious diseases.

Last Reviewed: December 31, 2002

John Kehrl, M.D., is the Chief of the B-Cell Molecular Immunology Section. Our goals are to understand how G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) transduce signals to downstream effectors in immune cells, to discern the mechanisms that control these responses, and to determine the physiologic consequences of G-protein activation for lymphocyte function.

Last Reviewed: July 12, 2022

Neuroinflammation during preclinical and clinical prion infection Influence of microglia and neurotoxic astrocytes on prion pathogenesis Alterations in cell populations and gene expression in the central nervous system and retina after prion infection Modeling Neuroborreliosis in human-derived neurons, astrocytes, and organoids

Last Reviewed: January 14, 2025

Molecular and virological investigation of HIV-1 and HIV-2 and their interactions with host factors.

Last Reviewed: September 21, 2022

Development of diagnostics tools to detect exposure to pathogens, insects, and ticks The host immune response to insect-borne pathogens Pathogen-insect interactions Field expertise in epidemiology and pathogen transmission of insect-borne diseases

Last Reviewed: February 26, 2025

Elodie Ghedin, Ph.D. is the Chief of the Systems Genomics Section. Our systems biology research program meets at the interface of molecular parasitology, microbiology, and genomics and focuses on the molecular basis of macroparasite (nematodes) adaptation to niches in their human hosts and microparasite (virus and bacteria) diversity and interaction in transmission and virulence.

Last Reviewed: January 16, 2025

The Quantitative Virology and Evolution Unit focuses on understanding the dynamic and heterogenous processes of RNA virus infection and evolution. We characterize virus evolution and host-virus interactions across spatial and temporal scales using experimental tools, including high-resolution sequencing and live-cell microscopy, along with computational phylogenetic and bioinformatic tools

Last Reviewed: February 28, 2025

Our work involves the study of bacterial-host interactions using relevant cellular and animal model systems. We seek to elucidate immunologic mechanisms involved in these interactions and use this knowledge to advance preclinical therapeutic and vaccine development efforts.

Last Reviewed: December 6, 2024

These are original research publications using samples obtained from the NIAID COVID Consortium. Each paper addresses one or more of the scientific questions outlined in the project pages, with the goal of elucidating the immune response to COVID-19. Publications Goetzke C.C., Massoud M., Frischbutter S., et al. TGFβ links EBV to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Nature. 2025 Mar 12

Last Reviewed: March 18, 2025

Michael Lenardo, M.D., is the Former Chief of the Molecular Development of the Immune System Section and the Former Co-Director, NIAID Clinical Genomics Program.

Last Reviewed: July 1, 2024

We study how Salmonella Typhimurium interacts with mammalian host cells and the roles these interactions play in pathogenesis.

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2022

To carry out the research performed in the Molecular Development of the Immune System Section (MDISS), our team of dedicated scientific and clinical staff study patients using our combined expertise in genetics/genomics, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, and immunology.

Last Reviewed: March 20, 2025