The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine

Viral Immunology: Tripp Laboratory

Research Projects

Goals

To bridge basic research with translational vaccine and therapeutic development by promoting promising discoveries.

To serve as a training component designed to provide both graduate and veterinary students and other individuals with the microbiology and immunology skills required to work with emerging infectious diseases and agents of bioterrorism.

To achieve these goals, it is imperative that those in human, animal, agricultural and environmental sciences work together to address threats associated with emerging infectious diseases. Toward this end, our laboratory has established extensive collaborative projects with industry, government and universities at the national and international level.

Some highlighted research projects include:

Determining the mechanisms of immunity and disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory virus infection, e.g. respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus

RNA Interference: Development of RNAi therapeutics and gene silencing to provide respiratory virus intervention strategies

Virus/Pathogen Biosensing: Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) technology for viral identification

Development of nanotehnology for biosensing, drug delivery, and cell and viral imaging using novel fluorescent conjugates

Vaccine development (DNA, protein, vector, and virus) to enhance immunity to respiratory viruses

Pilot GMP facility for vaccine production

Development of vaccine carriers to enhance efficacy at sites of inductive immunity

Development of monoclonal antibodies reactive to respiratory virus proteins

We are a project member of the NIAID Southeast Regional Center for Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance(CEIRS)

This page last updated May 16, 2008 .