2006 merck/merial - School of Veterinary Medicine - Louisiana State ...

KEYNOTE SPEAKERRonald Veazey, D.V.M., Ph.D.Chair of the Division of Comparative Pathology, Tulane National Primate Research CenterHead of Pathology, Tulane University School of MedicineDr. Veazey received his D.V.M. from Oklahoma StateUniversity in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology fromthe Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine in1994. He spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow and twoyears as an Instructor of Pathology in the laboratory of Dr.Andrew Lackner at the New England Primate Research Center,Harvard Medical School, where he worked on the pathogenesisof AIDS using the simian immunodeficiency virus/macaquemodel of HIV infection. He moved to the Tulane NationalPrimate Research Center in 2000, where he continues to studyAIDS in nonhuman primate models.Research in Dr. Veazey's laboratory currently focuses on theimmunology, prevention, and treatment of HIV infection andAIDS. Active projects involve determining correlates ofprotective immune responses, testing new HIV therapies and preventatives (microbicides), andexamining the immune response to HIV infection in mucosal tissues, especially in the intestinal andreproductive tracts. He also has ongoing studies to examine the pathogenesis of SIV infection inpediatric hosts and the effects of alcohol use as a cofactor in the susceptibility and progression to AIDS.Drs. Veazey and Lackner originally showed that the intestinal tract, and not blood or lymph nodes, wasthe major site for early SIV replication and profound CD4+ T cell depletion, findings that have veryrecently been confirmed HIV-infected patients. He also has identified specific subsets of CD4+ T cellsthat are rapidly eliminated within days of HIV infection, thus proving that the infection may not be as“latent” as previously believed, as the virus immediately and irreversibly cripples the immune system byeliminating these “effector memory” CD4+ T cells. Based largely on these findings, Dr. Veazey hasalso developed a successful microbicide program to test molecular “fusion inhibitors” for their ability toprotect these effector memory cells, which may prevent the transmission of HIV to women, particularlyin developing societies where condom use is discouraged.8