Research Laboratories

Principal Investigator: Aleksandra Tata, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor in Surgery

Through an integrated approach spanning molecular profiling, imaging, and functional assays, the Tata Lab aims to define how vascular networks regenerate, communicate, and contribute to rebuilding of a functional lung architecture.

Principal Investigator: Chin-Ho Chen, PhD, Professor Emeritus in Surgery

The Laboratory of Antiviral Drug Discovery conducts research for the development of novel therapeutics against HIV-1 and influenza viruses.

Principal Investigator: Nrupen Bhavsar, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery

The Bhavsar Lab at Duke leads research in social informatics, which combines methods in epidemiology, informatics, and biostatistics, to understand how clinical and non-clinical factors impact health. The lab collaborates with investigators across numerous clinical areas, including cardiovascular disease, pulmonology, infectious disease, chronic kidney disease, and oncology.

Principal Investigator: Joshua Snyder, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery

The primary focus of the Cancer Initiation and Cancer Cell Behavior Lab is to determine how cancer cells and their ecosystem adapt during the occult phase of tumorigenesis. The lab utilizes Cancer rainbow models (Crainbow) and hyperspectral techniques for exploring tumor initiation with unprecedented resolution in space and time. 

Principal Investigator: Bruce Sullenger, PhD, Joseph W. and Dorothy W. Beard Distinguished Professor of Experimental Surgery

The Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory, under the direction of Bruce Sullenger, is focused on multidisciplinary translational research approaches to the study of blood coagulation, inflammation, and atherogenesis at the molecular level. Novel anti-coagulation approaches developed within the program are presently undergoing pre-clinical and clinical evaluation.

Principal Investigator: Gayathri Devi, PhD, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery

The research group, under the direction of Dr. Gayathri Devi, focuses on translational and clinical applications of programmed cell death signaling. Cell death is a critical process in tissue sculpting, adult cell homeostasis, for destruction of damaged cells and in pathobiology. 

Principal Investigator: H. Kim Lyerly, MD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Immunology and Professor of Surgery

The Center for Applied Therapeutics encompasses a broad array of research activities involved in the development, preclinical testing, and clinical testing of novel therapies targeting cancer or precancerous conditions. Collectively, the Center for Applied Therapeutics consists of over 30 individuals ranging from senior scientists to post-doctoral fellows.

Principal Investigator: R. Keith Reeves, PhD, Professor in Surgery

The Division of Innate and Comparative Immunology (DICI) focuses on delineating innate immune mechanisms, particularly for natural killer (NK) cells and granulocytes, in controlling viral infections and regulating inflammatory immune responses. 

Principal Investigator: Aravind Asokan, PhD, Professor in Surgery

The Asokan Engineering Biology and Gene Therapy Lab engineers biological macromolecules and viruses for human gene therapy.

Principal Investigators: H. Kim Lyerly, MD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Immunology and Professor of Surgery; Yuliya Krauchanka, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Surgery

Home to multiple high-power universities, agencies, corporations, and non-profit organizations, the Triangle Area presents an ideal environment for stimulating productive, synergistic, activity exploring environmental aspects of health. Members of the Duke School of Medicine (DSOM) together with investigators at the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment (NSOE), the Duke Law of School, the Duke...

Principal Investigator: Georgia Tomaras, PhD, A. Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Immunology, Professor in Surgery, and Chief of Surgical Sciences

The Laboratory of Immune Responses and Virology is led by Georgia Tomaras, PhD, Director of Research at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. Dr. Tomaras' overall research program is to understand the cellular and humoral immune response to HIV-1 infection and vaccination that are involved in protection from HIV-1.

Principal Investigator: Kent J. Weinhold, PhD, Joseph W. and Dorothy W. Beard Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Experimental Surgery

The Immune Signatures Laboratory, under the Direction of Dr. Kent J. Weinhold, is the academic home for the Duke Immune Profiling Core (DIPC), a School of Medicine Shared Resource. In addition to their ongoing HIV/AIDS research projects, the laboratory is presently focused on utilizing a comprehensive repertoire of highly standardized and formerly validated assay platforms to profile the human immune system in order to identify immunologic signatures that predict clinical outcomes. 

Principal Investigator: Smita K. Nair, PhD, Professor in Surgery

The research in our laboratory focuses on the designing and testing of novel vaccines against cancer and viral infections using murine and human assay systems. In a pioneering study, our group demonstrated that dendritic cells, pulsed with unfractionated total RNA isolated from tumor cells, stimulates tumor immunity both in murine tumor models and in vitro human assays. 

Principal Investigator: Guido Ferrari, MD, Professor inSurgery

The overall goal of the laboratory is to understand the ontogeny of HIV-1 specific MHC class I-restricted and non-restricted immune responses that work by eliminating HIV-1 infected cells and how these can be induced by AIDS vaccine candidates. The studies gravitate around class I-mediated cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), gene expression in effector cellular subsets, and development of Ab-based molecules that can engage cytotoxic effector subsets.

Principal Investigator: Justin Pollara, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery

The Pollara lab for innate and adaptive interactions characterizes the phenotype and functionality of antibody-interacting innate immune cells and explores how natural genetic variation in antibodies and antibody receptors may contribute to vaccine responsiveness and immune competence.

Principal Investigator: David Montefiori, PhD, Professor in Surgery

Dr. Montefiori’s major research interests are viral immunology and HIV vaccine development, with a special emphasis on neutralizing antibodies. One of his highest priorities is to identify immunogens that generate broadly neutralizing antibodies for inclusion in vaccines. Many aspects of neutralizing antibodies are studied in his laboratory, including mechanisms of neutralization, viral escape...

Principal Investigator: Zachary Hartman, PhD, Associate Professor in Surgery

Our laboratory studies immunity and inflammation in the context of developing and established cancers. These research interests involve the investigation of immune regulation in cancer and strategies to modulate innate and adaptive immunity against tumors. In these efforts, we principally explore the use of immunotherapeutic modulators against cancer and the development of vaccines and antibodies...

Principal Investigator: Erika J. Crosby, PhD, Assistant Professor in Surgery

The Tumor Immune Microenvironment lab, under the direction of Dr. Erika Crosby, is broadly focused on leveraging multiomic, high dimensional approaches to understand and modify the immune microenvironment present in primary and metastatic tumor sites. The lab is translationally focused and sits at the intersection of basic and clinical research where we use mouse models and clinical specimens in concert to ask and answer vital biological questions.