Biography

Dr. Samikkannu Thangavel received his M.S. from Bharathidasan University, India and Ph.D. from the University of Madras, India. He moved to the Taiwan as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, followed by Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Texas Tech University Health Science Center at Amarillo, Texas. He joined the Department of Immunology, College of Medicine at Florida International University, Miami, Florida as Research Associate in 2007 and promoted to Assistant professor in 2009.He has received several awards. As a graduate student he received the junior research fellowship from Rameswardas Birla Smarkkosh andprestigioussenior research fellowship from Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India. Recently he has received RO3 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). As a faculty member he received the “Operational Excellence Award” from the Florida International University college of Medicine in 2011.

As a cell and molecular biologist Samikkannu has been working on immune and neuronal disorders since graduate school. His major research focuses on Neuro-AIDS and substance abuse which induces molecular mechanism of immuno-neuropathogenesis in HIV infected subjects. Currently, he elucidates the mechanism of HIV subtypes (Clade) induced immune and neuronal impairments. It is not clear how the global predominant subtypes (clade B and C) induce differential pattern of AIDS progression and implications associated with neurocognitive disorder (HAND).Also, interactive role of substance abuse such as cocaine and methamphetamine with HIV infection and associated disease progression is yet to be delineated.