 Nafees Ahmad, PhD
Professor
Contact Information:
Education:
- Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, 1983.
Teaching:
- Director, Immunity and Infection Block, College of Medicine Curriculum
- Teach Virology in Immunity and Infection Block to 2nd year medical students, including lectures, case-based instruction, team learning, group clinical exercise and laboratory exercises
- Teach graduate students molecular virology and medical virology
- Supervise and advice graduate and undergraduate students
Research:
Molecular Virology
The main focus of my laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms of differential HIV-1 infection in neonatal and adult target cells as well as HIV-1 vertical transmission. Areas of investigation include: Role of viral and host factors associated with a higher viral load and rapid AIDS progression in neonates/infants compared with adults; Identification and characterization of host factors influencing differential HIV-1 infection and gene expression in neonatal (cord) blood mononuclear cells vs. adult cells; HIV-1 integration and differential gene expression in cord vs. adult cells; Differential HIV-1 infection in neonatal macrophages and naïve/memory T-cells vs. adult cells; Molecular and biological characterization of HIV-1 involved in vertical transmission and disease progression; Viral determinants, including viral heterogeneity, functional conservation/divergence of various HIV-1 genes, presence/absence of motifs in HIV-1 genes, replication efficiency, cell tropism, cytopathic effects, and coreceptor utilization associated with HIV-1 maternal-fetal transmission and pathogenesis; Development and Evaluation of anti-HIV-1 agents, including HIV entry inhibitors and inhibitors from natural products.
For more information please visit the Ahmad Lab page.
Publications:
- Wellensiek B, Ramakrishnan R, Sundaravaradan S, Mehta, R. Harris DT, and Ahmad N. Differential HIV-1 integration targets more actively transcribed host genes in neonatal than adult blood mononuclear cells. Virology (in press).
- Ahmad N. Molecular Mechanisms of HIV-1 Vertical Transmission and Pathogenesis in Infants. Advances in Pharmacology. (ed. by K-T. Jeang, Elsevier Inc) Vol 56, 453-508, 2008.
- Mehta R, Ramakrishnan R, Doktor K, Sundaravaradan S and Ahmad N. Genetic characterization of HIV type 1 long terminal repeat following verticle transmission. AIDS RES Hum Retro, 24 (3): 437-445, 2008.
- Mehta R, Sundaravaradan V and Ahmad N. Mutations generated in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 long terminal reeat during vertical transmission correlate with viral gene expression. Virology May 25;375(1):170-81. Epub 2008 Mar 3, 2008.
- Sundaravardan V, Das S, Sehgal S, Gopalan S, Jameel S and Ahmad N. Role of HIV-1 subtype C envelope V3 to V5 regions in viral entry, coreceptor utilization and replication efficiency in primary lymphocytes and macrophages. Virology Journal 4:126, 2007.
- Ramakrishnan R and Ahmad N. Derivation of primary sequence and secondary structure of rev responsive element from HIV-1 infected mothers and infants following vertical transmission. Virology 359:201-211, 2007.
- Sundaravardan V, Saxena S, Ramakrishnan R, Yedavalli VRK, Harris D, and Ahmad N. Differential HIV-1 replication in neonatal and adult mononuclear cells is influenced at the level of HIV-1 gene expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (PNAS) 103:11701-11706, 2006.
Peer-reviewed publications
Click here to see a listing of Peer-reviewed publications
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