Research Interest

My research program focuses on understanding the mechanisms of oral and gastrointestinal pathogenesis in human immunodeficiency (HIV) infection.  In particular, we are analyzing the role of the microbiome in the manifestation of chronic immune activation, inflammation, and opportunistic secondary infections.  Newly developed high throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revealed that opportunistic infections in HIV patients often represent polymicrobial perturbations (dysbiosis) of what is normally a delicately balanced homeostatic host-microbe ecosystem.  Our objectives are to understand the mechanistic relationship between alterations in the bacterial, fungal, and viral communities of the oral and intestinal microbiome, and the deterioration of epithelial and innate immune functions that influence host susceptibility to secondary infections and disease progression.  To accomplish these goals, we are balancing clinical studies of well-established cohorts of HIV infected patients with basic translational research using the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) non-human primate model.  We utilize state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing, multiple RNA and protein-based gene expression strategies, and in vitro tissue engineering technologies in our efforts to comprehensively unravel the causes and consequences of host-microbe dysbiosis in HIV infection.