The Laboratory of
HIV Immunopathogenesis
and Emerging Pathogens

HIV/Mtb Children living with HIV even if they are on antiretroviral therapy are much more susceptible to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) for reasons that are not well understood. We know little about the specific immune defects caused by HIV that are responsible for the increased susceptibility to Mtb, especially in children. Our group is using nonhuman primates to model HIV/Mtb coinfection of preadolescent children and determine how HIV affects a subset of innate immune cells, and test whether the ability of immunocompromised animals to fight TB is improved if we boost those cells. Building on an established collaboration in Myanmar in south East Asia, our lab is intently focused on examining these innate invariant T lymphocytes in children who are (co)infected with HIV and Mtb.