Alan Rothman, M.D., Research Professor
Alan L. Rothman, M.D., has recently joined iCubed as Head of the Laboratory of Viral Immunity and Pathogenesis and Research Professor in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Rothman has been involved in research on immunity and pathogenesis of viral diseases in humans for over 20 years. A major focus of his research has been defining the virological and immunological events in acute dengue virus infection and their relationship to the development of the viral hemorrhagic fever syndrome. Dr. Rothman has long-standing collaborations with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and internationally in Thailand, Europe, and Latin America. His current studies involve both clinical and basic research studies on pathogenesis and immunity of emerging and re-emerging viral infections. Dr. Rothman has served on advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.
Lenny Moise, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor
Lenny Moise, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Rhode Island in Providence, R.I. and a founding faculty member of the URI Institute for Immunology and Informatics.
Dr. Moise received his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University in Providence, R.I. in 2002. His research in Dr. Edward Hawrot’s laboratory focused on structure-function relationships of snake neurotoxin interactions with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Dr. Moise’s postdoctoral training at Brown University involved functional analysis of toxin binding sites engineered into toxin-insensitive ion channels. In 2005, he joined Dr. Anne De Groot’s laboratory at Brown University as an Instructor in Medicine in the Department of Medicine (Infectious Disease) to study T-cell epitope-driven vaccination and protein therapeutic immunogenicity. Dr. Moise joined EpiVax, Inc. in Providence, R.I. in 2006 where he is currently Director of Vaccine Research. He leads T-cell epitope-driven vaccine development projects using a genomes-to-vaccine approach that combines cutting edge immunoinformatic and immunologic methods. Additionally, his research efforts comprise de-immunization of protein therapeutics by epitope modification. In 2008, Dr. Moise accepted a part-time appointment as Research Assistant Professor at URI, where he leads vaccine and immunotherapeutic development projects as a Project Leader in an NIH Cooperative Center of Human Immunology program. Dr. Moise has published over 30 manuscripts and reviews and is supported by funding from the NIH and the American Thyroid Association.
Loren Fast, Ph.D., CMI Core Director
Loren Fast obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Minnesota. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Basic Immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center he took a faculty position in the Division of Hematology/ Oncology at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University where he is currently Associate Professor of Medicine (Research). His research interests are in the field of cellular immunology and especially the role of cytolytic cells. He has studied the role of these cells in transplantation, transfusion, immunotherapy and autoimmune diseases using both murine and human model systems.
More recently, he pioneered the use of xenogeneic graft-versus-host disease that is generated by the injection of human lymphocytes into immunodeficient mice as model for transfusion –associated graft-versus-host disease. As the director of Cellular Immunology Core, he will use his cellular immunology expertise to expand the menu of assays offered by the core and provide expertise in the design and development of immunological assays.
Carey Medin, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor
Carey Medin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Research Professor in iCubed’s Laboratory of Viral Immunity and Pathogenesis. She is researching the role of innate immunity in Dengue pathogenesis and hopes to develop a therapy to treat Dengue Fever.
Dr. Medin arrived at iCubed in May 0f 2011 and became a full-time faculty member in August 2011. Prior to her arrival to iCubed, Dr. Medin was an Assistant Professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. While at Stonehill, she taught cell biology, virology, and designed a cell biology and genetics laboratory course. She has also had appointments at Becker College, Fitchburg State College and Bellingham High School.
Dr. Medin received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Leslie De Groot, M.D., Professor
Dr. De Groot trained at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He served in the Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health and in Afghanistan, and spent 12 years at MGH and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. While at UC, Dr. De Groot was the head of the Thyroid Study Unit as well as head of the Endocrine Section. He joined the Endocrine Division at Brown University in January 2005 and moved to the University of Rhode Island in 2009.
Research accomplishments include purification of thyroid peroxidase and identifying it as the typical antigen in thyroid autoimmunity, recognition of the Thyroid Hormone Resistance Syndrome and cloning the mutated receptor genes involved, identification of the CTLA-4 gene as a common contributor to many human autoimmune diseases, development of an adenoviral vector for therapy of medullary thyroid cancer, and numerous studies on therapy of thyroid cancer. His research interests have centered on viral mediated gene therapy for thyroid cancer and genetic mechanisms promoting auto-immune thyroid disease. Recent studies pin-point the role of specific acidic aminoacids in determining the importance of T cell epitopes of the TSH-receptor, the role of regulatory T cells in Graves’ disease, and methods for augmenting function and number of Tregs. Having been a practicing thyroidologist for several decades, the final goal in Dr. De Groot’s research is to use this information to develop methods to combat autoimmune thyroid disease in patients. De Groot has more that 400 publications and received the Endocrine Society award as “Distinguished Educator” in 2004. Perhaps his best known publication is the three volume textbook “Endocrinology” which he edited through six editions over the past 30 years. He is currently excited by the educational possibilities of the two web books he directs, www.endotext.org and www.thyroidmanager.org, which receive over 80,000 hits each day from 6000 visitors around the world.
Vaccine News
