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Researcher Bios

Dr. Robert Jeffrey Hogan
Dr. S. Mark Tompkins
Dr. Ralph Tripp

Robert Jeffrey Hogan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
UGA College of Veterinary Medicine
Departments of Anatomy and Radiology and Infectious Diseases

Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 1998
B.S., Belhaven College, 1992

During his graduate training, Jeff Hogan studied the immune response to virus infection in channel catfish, and was the first to demonstrate that lower vertebrates possess cells with the ability to specifically recognize and kill virus-infected cells. After completion of his Ph.D., Hogan accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in the lab of Dr. David Woodland. His initial studies looked at the interaction of the toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1) and the immune system.

While at St. Jude, Hogan also identified a population of virus-specific T-cells that reside in the lungs of mice for long periods of time following resolution of a primary respiratory (e.g., influenza or Sendai) virus infection. After moving to the Trudeau Institute with Woodland in 1999, Hogan continued these studies and demonstrated that certain lung-resident, virus- specific T-cells play an important role in protection against reinfection.

In 2001, Hogan became a senior research scientist in the Division of Virology at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The following year, Hogan accepted a position in the Department of Homeland Security at the Southern Research Institute. He was responsible for re-establishing a BSL-3 laboratory, obtaining Select Agent approval from the CDC, and establishing multiple research projects with funding from private, governmental, and commercial entities. Hogan soon received a Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program award from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense. He worked extensively to identify antiviral compounds and develop animal models and vaccines against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus.

S. Mark Tompkins, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
UGA College of Veterinary Medicine
Department of Infectious Diseases

Ph.D., Immunology, Emory University, 1997
B.S., Microbiology, University of Illinois, 1990

After earning his doctorate in 1997, Mark Tompkins studied immune mechanisms of antigen- and virus-induced autoimmune diseases as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow at Chicago’s Northwestern University Medical School. Tompkins joined the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration as a Research Fellow in 2002. At the FDA, Tompkins focused his research interests on immune responses to influenza infection and the development of novel, broadly-protective influenza vaccines, and began working in the emerging field of RNA interference.

Tompkins joined the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine as an assistant professor in the Center for Disease Intervention. This center focuses on the development of novel vaccines and anti- viral therapies for emerging and high-priority infectious diseases, and is based in the Animal Health Research Center.

Tompkins’ current research interests focus on novel approaches for detection, vaccination, and treatment of viral infections—particularly human and avian influenza. Cutting-edge technology, such as RNA interference, is being utilized to suppress viral replication in vivo and to protect against virus challenge. Additional studies focus on using novel vaccine technologies to induce broad protection against annual and potentially pandemic influenza infection.

Ralph Tripp, Ph.D.

Professor
UGA College of Veterinary Medicine
Department of Infectious Diseases

Director, Center for Disease Intervention
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
GRA Chair of Animal Health Vaccine Development

Ph.D., Oregon State University, 1989
B.S., Biology, Franklin Pierce College, N.H., 1984

Ralph Tripp arrived at the Emory University School of Medicine in 1990 for a postdoctoral fellowship in a lab that focused on adenoviruses, which cause respiratory infections and are adept at bypassing the immune system. He left Emory for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in 1993, and then joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in 1997. Tripp was a section chief in the Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch of the CDC, where he studied immunity and disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory virus infections. He has studied influenza and respiratory virology for over 14 years, and disease intervention strategies since 1989.

His extensive program management experience includes designing and leading multiple projects at the CDC, involvement in the Southeast Regional Center for Excellence in Emerging Diseases, as well as participating in Agrosecurity Awareness Training Strategy for the Georgia Agroterrorism Committee.

He came to the veterinary college to direct vaccine and anti-viral studies in the Animal Health Research Center. His lab’s primary research interest is to understand the mechanisms of immunity and disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory virus infection, and to use this information to develop therapeutic protocols and vaccines that will provide protection or treatment. His studies center on understanding conceptual and functional differences between innate and adaptive immune responses to infection that provide the foundation necessary to facilitate disease intervention strategies.

This page last updated June 4, 2007.