UB Global Virus Network Center of Excellence

The GVN Affiliate at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, Jamaica is housed in the Department of Microbiology, an academic department with a full suite accredited diagnostic laboratory. The UWI GVN Affiliate is also an Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition (APDC) site where hospitalized patients with a likely viral etiology are surveilled to detect emerging and novel viral infections. Research at the UWI GVN Affiliate focuses primarily on 1) retroviruses, arboviruses, COVID-19, and virus discovery. A wide range of techniques are used that include cell culture, immunoassays, real-time PCR, and next generation sequencing. Work at the UWI GVN Affiliate is supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center, Wellcome Trust, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Abbott Laboratories.

is a member of the SUNY Upstate Medical University faculty team that has engaged in translational arbovirus research in Thailand for more than 20 years. This work combines innovative field epidemiological approaches with advanced systems immunological approaches to define immune correlates of protection from dengue illness and correlates of poor outcomes, with a goal of informing vaccine design and implementation. Their collective work, in collaboration with the US Army and other academic partners, has generated important insights into the dynamics of immune cross-protection and transmission patterns for dengue in hyperendemic areas. Katie Anderson is a physician scientist (internist and epidemiologist) who has based her research career in designing and translating data from prospective cohort studies for dengue to inform countermeasure development; in this capacity she is PI for a jointly funded NIH and military-funded long term cohort study of multigenerational households in northern Thailand (Kamphaeng Phet). Currently funded through 13 years of continuous follow-up, this study will provide unprecedented insights into the impacts of sequential dengue infections on immunity and illness, in the contexts of aging and viral evolution.

The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago, is one of five regional UWI Campuses serving 18 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean. The focal point for virology research at this GVN affiliated center is the Faculty of Medical Sciences which includes schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing. Virology research to date has focused primarily on genomic surveillance, virus evolution, molecular epidemiology, and in particular on understanding evolutionary and ecological factors that underlie viral emergence and epidemic behaviour. Studies include investigations into important human and animal pathogens vectored by mosquito, tick, culicoides and bats including dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika viruses, rabies virus, bluetongue virus, influenza viruses and bat coronaviruses. The center’s work was pivotal during the COVID-19 pandemic when it implemented rapid whole genome sequencing in Trinidad and Tobago and led genomic surveillance efforts for SARS-CoV-2 variants for 17 Caribbean countries. This not only highlighted the center’s capability in handling emergent viral threats but also underscored its role in regional public health resilience. Researchers at the center have also made highly impactful contributions to progressing the One Health agenda in the Caribbean.

Dr. Cha is a clinical pharmacologist on multiple NIAID ACTG protocols focusing on anti-PD-1 antibodies and HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies. His emphasis is on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and the optimal dosing of HIV-1 bNABs. Dr. Cha is also the Assistant Director of the UB HIV Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance Program.

Research Associate Professor in the Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences, UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Program Manager for the UB NIH-sponsored HIV Quality Assurance Program, and an Adjunct Faculty Member in the UB Department of Biotechnology and Clinical Sciences within the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She has over 30 years of experience in pharmacology research (20+ in HIV research) and is a mentor in the UB Fogarty research training programs in Zimbabwe and Jamaica.

Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics & Professor of Internal Medicine, Department of Biomedical Informatics, UB Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. He is the primary author of the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) national standard on Quality Indicators for Controlled Health Vocabularies ASTM E2087, which has also been approved by ISO TC 215 as a Technical Specification (TS17117). He has chaired Health and Human Service’s HITSP Technical Committee on Population Health. Dr. Elkin served as the co-chair of the AHIC Transition Planning Group. Dr. Elkin is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

A current U01 sociomedical scientist with training in HIV prevention and care, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Her research broadly aims to understand the multilevel and intersectional determinants of health disparities among racial, sexual and gender minorities, including how historical and socio-structural factors such as racism, intersectional stigma, violence, and criminalization shape disease outcomes among these populations. She completed the Traineeships in AIDS Prevention Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship—a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded T32 fellowship—at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. Over the past decade, Gyamerah has conducted research in the areas of sexual rights, sexual health, minority stress and HIV, with a focus on general and LGBTQ populations in Africa and in the U.S.

Dr. Hicar’s laboratory focuses on antibody discovery against infectious agents. In prior studies, fluorescent HIV virus like particles have been used to sort individual anti-HIV B cells from HIV long term non-progressors. Antibodies that have been discovered have identified novel epitopes that can be targeted during antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity. These antibodies are being used to design vaccines. Ongoing studies also are investigating using B cell responses to discover infectious etiologies that precede inflammatory disorders, with a current focus on Kawasaki disease (KD). KD is a vasculitis of children that is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries. A biobank from over 200 children has been created, including over 50 samples from children with KD. This laboratory was the first to demonstrate that children with KD have comparable B cell plasmablast responses to children with infections, supporting that an infection leads to KD. The team has used next-generation sequencing and single cell sequencing to show clonal expansion in B cell plasmablasts and are studying these antibodies to identify an infectious etiology of KD. Analysis is being done on a variety of platform including IMGT, Abstar, and Immcantation. The group is also focusing on identifying shared highly similar antibodies between individuals. These ‘public clonotypes’ have been shown to be specific for infections such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2. Similar antibodies from their cohort of SARS-CoV-2 samples, including children with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, have confirmed this approach. The team has current grants to use bulk sequencing and single cell sequencing to discover such public clonotypes in KD and Alzheimer’s disease.

A Research Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, in the UB Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. Her research focus includes microbial pathogenesis; microbiology; molecular and cellular biology; protein function and structure; viral pathogenesis. Her scientific research expertise centers on viral entry and membrane fusion, structural virology, and the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors targeting enveloped viruses such as HIV, Ebola, Zika, and SARS-CoV-2. She is also an expert in high containment biological research regulation and practice.

Professor of Parasite Epidemiology in the Department of Microbiology and Director, Mona Office for Research and Innovation. He is the Co-Chair, SUNY-UWI Health Research Consortium and Principle Investigator for the SUNY-UWI Global Infectious Diseases Research Program funded by the NIH Fogarty International Center.

Dr. Ma’s Research is focused on three major areas including HIV new drug development, aging, and HIV/mental health. As part of NIAID AIDS Clinical Trials Group, UB has a subaward with the University of Rochester Clinical Trials Unit and contributes expertise in antiviral pharmacology and therapeutics. Dr. Ma and the UB team have been involved in multiple clinical trials of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 as the next generation of HIV treatment. (2) Buffalo Chapter currently is leading a multi-institution project on polypharmacy management among people with HIV and neurocognitive impairment sponsored by National Institute on Aging. (3) Three ongoing Phase IV trials supported by pharmaceutical industries investigate CNS accessibility of new antiretroviral agents, use of long-acting injectable antiretroviral agents in special populations such as renally impaired, and polypharmacy management.

Dr. Mahajan has a research focus on the mechanisms that underlie HIV-1 and Drug Abuse Mediated Neuroinflammation in the context of Aging. Combined Anti-retroviral Therapy (cART) can effectively suppress viral replication, yet ~ 60 % of the aging HIV population experience some form of neurocognitive impairment (Neuro-AIDS), resulting in, BBB dysfunction and exacerbated neuroinflammation is attributed to inflammasome activation due to HIV-1 proteins, cART, and/or synergistic/additive effects of drugs of abuse. Inflammasomes play a significant role in neuroinflammation owing to their ability to regulate the activation of various inflammatory responses. Inflammasomes have been shown to be activated during aging and accelerating CNS diseases. Microglia play a key role in aging-related diseases and HIV-1/HIV-1 proteins and drugs of abuse activate inflammasomes in microglia, thereby contributing to neuroinflammation. Thus, activated inflammasome mediated upregulation of neuroinflammation in microglia plays a significant role in the premature aging process during chronic HIV-1 infection and its comorbidity with drugs of abuse.

Among the pathogens that contribute significantly to disease burden (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, HIV, HBV and HCV), it is critical to monitor their evolution in the population to always deploy the most optimal tools for diagnostics and monitoring. As an Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition site, a virus discovery program has been established in Zimbabwe with the first phase will be carried out in the Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, and later to serve as a national referral center for the diagnosis of fever of unknown origin. The main objective of the study is to determine the prevalence and the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2, HIV, HBV, HDV, and HCV strains circulating in Zimbabwe. The program will also identify novel pathogens and characterize the sequences from patients with illness of unknown etiology in Zimbabwe and evaluate the performance of blood screening and diagnostic assays in development. This site has also conducted research in the evaluation of HPV vaccine efficacy among adolescent girls and boys living with HIV. and is an ongoing evaluation of HPV genotypes in a cohort of individuals living with HIV that received the HPV vaccine within five years.

UB Distinguished Professor, Medicine and Pediatrics; Division Chief; Allergy, Immunology & Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, UB Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. His research interests include allergy and immunology; antibody-drug conjugates; asthma; blood-brain barrier and brain delivery; blood-brain barrier and drug delivery; brain research; cancer treatment and prevention; clinical research; drug delivery; drug design; drug formulation; drug targeting; gene therapy; hiv human immunodeficiency virus; immunogenicity; immunology; immunology; immunotherapy; molecular and cellular biology; molecular basis of disease; monoclonal antibodies; nanoparticles; nanoparticles; nanotechnology; neurobiology; neuroimmunology; neuroimmunology; neuropharmacology; proteomics; rhinology; sinus disorders; targeted drug delivery; viral pathogenesis; and virology.

Dr. Thangamani directs the Vector Biology Laboratory at Upstate Medical University. His research interests include: effect of co-infection on the clinical outcome of Lyme disease and Powassan encephalitis, impact of ecological changes on geographic expansion of Powassan virus and other tick borne diseases in Upstate New York, tick and tick borne diseases surveillance in Upstate New York, tick determinants of Powassan virus transmission, arthropod-virus-host interface: Nidus of arbovirus transmission, the effect of mosquito salivary factors on Chikungunya and Zika virus infection and dissemination, development of tick transmission model for Heartland virus pathogenesis and ecology of infectious diseases.

Dr. Peruski is the Director of the Wadsworth Center in the New York State Department of Health. A science-based laboratory community, the Center is committed to protecting and improving the health of New Yorkers through laboratory analysis, investigations, and research, as well as laboratory certification and educational programs. It is also a global leader in public health research and translational science. The Center has over 50 principal investigators and more than 700 staff in five sites across the greater Albany metropolitan area. Center scientists study public health issues such as drug resistance to emerging infections, environmental exposures, and basic biological processes that contribute to human health and disease. Additionally, as the state's public health reference laboratory, the Wadsworth Center is responsible for responding to public health threats, developing methods to detect microbes and genetic disorders, measuring and analyzing environmental chemicals, and licensing clinical and environmental laboratories. The Center has numerous Public Health Programs, a broad array of research areas, regulatory programs, numerous education and training initiatives, and extramural funding to support research.

Dr. Prasad holds the unique multidisciplinary position of SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Medicine (four departments spanning three schools). He is the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Chemistry and the Executive Director of the multidisciplinary Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, which he founded in 1999. His pioneering contributions in interdisciplinary research at the interface of photonics, nanotechnology, and biomedicine have broadly impacted healthcare, energy, and optical technologies. Scientific American named him among the world’s top 50 science and technology leaders.

Dr. Stavrou’s research focuses on the interplay between cellular host proteins and retroviruses utilizing both in vitro and in vivo models. He has used knockout and transgenic mice to study the effect host genes have on retrovirus infection in vivo. The current focus is on the importance of host proteins on retrovirus infection and to elucidate the roles of HIV accessory proteins on counteracting cellular intrinsic defenses both in vivo and in vitro. Additional research has been initiated with SARS-CoV-2.

Professor of Bioinformatics, Associate Director of AI and Health Science, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UB Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. His research interests include metagenomics, currently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Women’s Health Initiative. Our goal is to develop an integrated suite of computational and statistical algorithms to process millions or even hundreds of millions of microbial genome sequences to: 1) derive quantitative microbial signatures to characterize various infectious diseases, 2) interactively visualize the complex structure of a microbial community, 3) study microbe-microbe interactions and community dynamics and 4) identify novel species. He also focuses on cancer progression modeling using advanced computational algorithms to integrate clinical and genetics data from thousands of tumor and normal tissue samples to build a model of cancer progression.

Dr. Talal is a Professor of Medicine and an internationally recognized hepatologist who conducts HCV therapeutics research and has explored the effectiveness of integrating telemedicine into opioid treatment programs for HCV management, thereby removing the need for offsite referrals. His research has been supported by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Troup Fund of the Kaleida Health Foundation in Buffalo. Dr. Talal had developed a novel approach to cure hepatitis C virus in people with opioid use disorder using facilitated telemedicine. This approach has led to him being honored with a 2025 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum.

Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Upstate Medical University, SUNY. His research interests include arboviruses and, human dengue infection model.

A clinical pharmacologist with experience in pharmacokinetic and population pharmacokinetic modeling. His main research interests focus on characterizing the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of approved and investigational drugs and identifying influential sources of variability in drug behavior. These could include pharmacogenetics, drug-drug interactions, and disease progression factors. Dr. Venuto has collaborated with the New York State Center of Excellence Translational Pharmacology Research Core, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, and CHDI (formerly the Cure Huntington's Disease Initiative) in various clinical pharmacology modeling and simulation projects.

Dr. Wood’s research focus is to obtain structural information of molecules with electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) relevant to processes in the life sciences. En route to achieving this broad goal, his group has developed miniaturized approaches for electrospray ionization (nanospray) and sample preparation protocols for MALDI. His group is using mass spectrometry approaches to discover and validate biomarkers and uses high mass accuracy capability of the Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer to deduce molecular compositions and (with MS/MS) structures of unknown metabolites. Using MALDI, his research interrogates the surfaces of tissues (animal and plant) and examines their spatial distribution and three-dimensional distribution. Dr. Wood has recently been developing MS=based approaches to quantitate HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Senior Vice President, Clinical Investigation; Director, Center for Early Phase Clinical Trials; Chief, Early Phase Clinical Trials Division; Chief, Melanoma Section, Department of Medicine and The Judith and Stanford Lipsey Endowed Chair in Clinical Cancer Research at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the onset of COVID-19, the UB GVN Center was selected to be one of three GVN sites that were included in the Regeneron-sponsored protocol titled An Adaptive Phase 2/3, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study Assessing Efficacy and Safety of Sarilumab for Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 and Dr. Puzanov was the site PI.