The Division of Infectious Diseases at the
Massachusetts General Hospital comprises the Infectious
Disease Unit and the Partners AIDS Research Center.
Of the more than thirty-five full-time faculty
members, the majority are currently recipients
of external funding for basic scientific, translational,
and/or clinical research. In addition to the full-time
faculty members, the Division has many junior
faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students engaged
in research training under the mentorship of Division
faculty.
Research in the Division of Infectious Diseases focuses
on the molecular pathogenesis of bacterial infection
(with an emphasis on enteric pathogens, such
as Vibrio cholerae, Shigella, Salmonella, and
Escherichia coli O157:H7); regulation of virulence
gene expression in bacterial pathogens in response
to environmental and in vivo signals; international
collaborative studies in Bangladesh on cholera,
dengue, cryptosporidium and typhoid fever; the
development of live, attenuated, mucosal vaccines
and vaccine vectors; the mechanisms of action
of endotoxin; the mechanisms of bacterial resistance
to antimicrobial agents; pathogenesis and immune
responses to hepatitis C virus infection; pathogenesis
of CMV infection; and studies on infections related
to transplantation and other immunocompromising
disorders.
Research in the Partners
AIDS Research Center focuses on the immunopathogenesis
of HIV infection, and on pharmacologic and immunotherapeutic
interventions targeted at HIV. These
studies include the role of HIV-1 specific T helper
cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes in controlling
HIV viremia; the role of viral gene products in
down-regulating MHC class I expression on human
cells; field trials of candidate HIV-1 vaccines;
mechanisms of antiviral drug resistance; trials
of candidate therapeutic agents against HIV; and
a major international program of HIV care and
research in South Africa.
The Division of Infectious Diseases offers pre-doctoral
and post-doctoral research training with individual
mentors. Post-doctoral research training in
the Division is supported by a number of NIH
training grants in specific areas. In addition,
many of the post-doctoral fellows and junior
faculty are recipients of Mentored Clinical
Scientist Development (KO8) Awards, Mentored
Patient-Oriented Research Career Development
(K23) Awards, Mentored Research Scientist (KO1)
Awards, or Fogarty International Research Scientist
Development (K01) Awards from the NIH, post-doctoral
research fellowships from a variety of foundations,
or similar major research training awards.
The funding base for research in the Division
of Infectious Diseases has more than doubled in
the past five years, and now exceeds 16 million
dollars in direct costs annually. The majority
of the research funding comes from the National
Institutes of Health, with smaller amounts from
a variety of foundations and industry.
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