My laboratory uses a systems biology approach to decipher the antiretroviral effects of Interferon alpha (IFN-α) in vivo, by studying host gene expression, viral production and viral evolution in HIV-1-infected individuals undergoing IFN-α therapy. Recent data generated by our group strongly suggests that IFN-α suppresses HIV-1 replication in chronically infected individuals by inducing intrinsic cellular inhibitors of retroviral replication known as host restriction factors. One of these factors, the cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G, blocks HIV-1 infection by hypermutating the viral genome such that it no longer encodes functional proteins that are necessary for viral replication. Another factor, the type 2 integral membrane protein BST-2/tetherin, blocks HIV-1 infection by restricting the release of fully formed progeny virions from infected cells. Our data warrant investigation into therapeutic strategies that specifically enhance the expression of these intrinsic immune factors in HIV-1-infected individuals. 
 
In addition to my principal research projects involving IFN-α and cell-intrinsic immunity, I participate as a bioinformaticist and phylogeneticist in a number of HIV/AIDS collaborations with researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC), San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) and the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI). 

Current Positions

Associate Investigator, Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco 

Associate Adjunct Professor, University of California San Francicsco (UCSF) Department of Laboratory Medicine 

Associate Director, UCSF-GIVI Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)

Links

UC Berkeley web profile (Understanding Evolution)

UCSF press release: “Fighting Infections: Old Drug Reveals New Tricks”

Education & Training

Education: 

B.S., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona 

Ph.D., Evolutionary Biology, University of California, San Diego 

Training/Appointments: 

Graduate Research Assistant, HIV Sequence Database, Los Alamos National Laboratory 

Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF Department of Medicine 

Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, UCSF Medical School 

Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSF Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases 

Staff Investigator, San Francisco VA Medical Center 

Visiting Scientist, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology 

Research Associate, Center for Comparative Genomics, California Academy of Sciences 

UCSF AIDS Research Institute (ARI) Executive Committee Member 

Chair, UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP) Basic HIV/AIDS, Infectious Diseases & Global Review Committee 
 

Publications

Publications in NLM’s PubMed 

Publications in Google Scholor