The overall laboratory research resources include the Section's laboratories and programs in collaborating laboratories in the Tulane University Health Sciences Center and at the Tulane National Primate Research Center.
Dahlene Fusco, MD, PhD is a physician scientist whose lab has been dedicated to identification of host factors that mediate the interferon antiviral response distal to viral subversion points, using in vitro and in vivo models for dengue and Zika virus. Information obtained in these studies will be used to identify pre-clinical host targets for broad-acting antiviral design as well as host variability that influences viral pathology. Read More
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fusco has shifted her focus to an investigator-initiated study, ClinSeqSer, an observational study to understand natural history of SARS-COV-2 infections among special populations and characterize post-covid morbidity through immune response, virus genome sequencing, cytokine response, and virus shedding. She has also taken the lead in our clinical trials of COVID-19 therapeutics at Tulane Medical Center (TMC) and University Medical Center (UMC).
David Mushatt, MD, MPH&TM is the principal investigator for the Tulane site of the NIH-funded INSIGHT network (formerly part of the CPCRA), an international collaborative group conducting clinical trials in HIV/AIDS. Two studies are in long-term follow-up phase: REPRIEVE, and START.
Dr. Mushatt is an investigator and scientific advisor for LA-CEAL, the Louisiana Community-Engagement Research Alliance Against COVID-19 in Disproportionately Affected Communities, a site of the NIH-funded CEAL initiative.
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Medical School has a number of basic scientists working on laboratory projects in mycology, bacteriology, molecular biology, vaccines, and virology which serve as suitable sites for supervised research experience.
The Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, offers several research opportunities in infectious diseases: malaria, microfilaria, simian AIDS (SAIDS), Lyme disease and other primate models of infectious diseases.
Please go to Affiliated Research for additional infectious diseases research opportunities.
