Leadership Committee

Dr. Buch’s post-doctoral training focused on the pathogenesis and therapeutic approaches to the toxic effects of oxygen therapy in premature babies. She then became involved in HIV and NeuroAIDS research at the Kansas University Medical Center where she spearheaded the program in SIV pathogenesis and drug abuse. Throughout her career, Dr. Buch has contributed to an increased understanding of the molecular basis of HIV-associated neurocovitive disorders (HAND) which have greatly increased our appreciation for interactions among glia, neurons, and components of the blood-brain barrier in HAND. At UNMC, Dr. Buch received the scientist laureate award for her outstanding research contributions to the field.

Dr. Buch has published over 145 peer-reviewed articles in the area of molecular pathogenesis of HIV in many highly regarded journals, has secured federal and local grants to support her research on HIV pathogenesis, and has mentored students of every level, from undergraduates to junior faculty.

Research Interests: Identifying novel therapeutic strategies that may enhance neuronal function and survival in NeuroAIDS with possible implications in other neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Saugstad cloned the genes for mouse metabotropic glutamate receptors 7 and 8 (mGluRs), then studied the regulation of signaling by mGluRs. Her lab was the first to show that miRNAs are differentially regulated by ischemic preconditioning in mouse brain, and the first to show a miRNA signature common to males and females in stroke, and conversely that distinct miRNAs are regulated by stroke in male vs. female mouse brain. Her studies were also the first to identify miRNAs that discriminate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from controls in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from living donors, that combinations of miRNAs serve as sensitive and specific biomarkers for AD, that adding a reference marker (such as APOEɛ4 genotype) and CSF Aβ42:T-Tau ratios to miRNA combinations increases classification performance for AD, and that a subset of miRNAs show a linear trend of decreasing median expression from controls to mild cognitive impairment to AD. Her current studies have shown that the AD miRNAs in CSF work better to discriminate AD from controls in plasma, and her studies have now expanded to include the role(s) of extracellular vesicles and their cargo in AD and neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Interests: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of signaling in the brain; Role of microRNAs in CSF and plasma as AD biomarkers; Contribution of EVs and their cargo as mediators of intercellular communication and their potential role in altered signaling in dementia.

Dr. Dogra has held positions at IBM Research and Yale University to drive translational research in “liquid biopsy in cancer” and “drug delivery” by bringing together clinical experimental oncology and the development of novel tools for the biosensing of genetic markers. Dr. Dogra recently filed for two US patents relating to “exosomes nanoparticles assisted drug delivery” and “tumor heterogeneity”.

Research Interests: Exosomes and extracellular vesicles; Cell-Free DNA, RNA; Proteins, bioengineering, and viruses.

Dr. Chandra has a background in virology, molecular biology, extracellular vesicles, and neuropathogenesis. His research focuses on understanding the molecular link between circulating extracellular vesicles and aging/HIV-associated dysfunction in cerebral microvessels (end arterioles, capillaries, and venules) and neurovascular unit in the brain.

Recently, Dr. Chandra reported that proteins in extracellular vesicles (EVs) of HIV-infected patients/rhesus macaques have a link to neuropathogenesis possibly due on dysregulation of mitochondrial function of brain microvascular endothelium and blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity. Dr. Chandra’s group reported that upregulated fibrinogen during aging leads to adverse protein profile changes, including mitochondrial respiration, glycolysis, mitochondrial fission/fusion, and BBB integrity via a dynamin-related protein 1-dependent pathway in mice brain microvessels. Dr. Chandra’s team is testing the preclinical efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) or MSC-derived EVs as a novel therapy for protecting the aging/HIV-associated dysfunction in brain microvasculature.

Previously, Dr. Chandra reported that the severity of chronic liver disease due to hepatitis B virus infection is significantly correlated with its different genotypes and sub-genotypes and the mutations in the viral genome. Dr. Chandra and his team developed in vitro and in vivo hepatitis C virus infection models to understand the role of viruses and host factors for the development of chronic infection and pathogenesis. Moreover, Dr. Chandra reported highly promising MSC-based therapy for latent HIV-1 reactivation and developed a new humanized mouse model (NSG/α-Gal^null) to study the HIV-associated neuropathogenesis.

Research Interests: Identifying molecular pathway(s) for aging/HIV-associated neuropathogenesis; developing novel therapeutic strategies that may enhance neuronal function and survival in aging NeuroAIDS with possible implications in other neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Sultana received postdoctoral training in vector-borne diseases at Yale University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was promoted to Associate Research Scientist after receiving an independent RO3 award from NIH/NIAID to study tick-pathogen interactions. In 2010, she obtained a tenure-track assistant professor position at the Center for Molecular Medicine, Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University (ODU) and in 2012, she received tenure and promotion to associate professor at ODU. Her research is in the field of vector-borne diseases where she laid the foundation for novel investigations on arthropod exosomes in facilitating transmission of tick and mosquito-borne flaviviruses from vector to the vertebrate host. Her laboratory was the first to provide evidence that tick/mosquito-borne flaviviruses use arthropod-derived exosomes for transmission of full-length RNA genomes, proteins/poly-proteins from vector to the mammalian cells and that these viruses use exosomes for dissemination within the vertebrate host. She has received R01 funding from NIH/NIAID to continue this line of research on arthropod exosomes.

In 2020, she moved her research laboratory to University of Tennessee at Knoxville where she is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences and continues her research on arthropod exosomes and flavivirus host interactions. Dr. Sultana has received numerous awards and has won the ATCC’s 2022 Innovation Challenge for her innovative research on the function of hTERT MSC exosomes on flavivirus replication.

Dr. Sultana has published in several high-impact journals and serves as an editorial board member and a peer-reviewer for many Microbiology and Virology journals. She also supports NIH study sections and special emphasis panels as a potential reviewer.

Research Interests: Various aspects of infectious diseases and host-pathogen interactions that are directly related to human and animal health, specifically vector-borne viral diseases involving flaviviruses as pathogens and ticks/mosquitoes as the primary vectors of medical importance.

Dr. Santos began his postdoctoral fellowship at Roseman University in Las Vegas where he identified the fate of extracellular vesicles upon entering target cells. His projects have focused on characterizing the proteins involved in transporting extracellular vesicle cargo into the nucleus of cells and developing techniques to visualize these vesicles in fixed and live samples by super-resolution STORM and confocal microscopy. Dr. Santos has also studied the effects of extracellular vesicle uptake on gene expression levels, and he hopes to establish extracellular vesicles as potential biomarkers in cancer and other diseases.

Research Interests: Extracellular vesicle characterization; Cell-to-cell communication; Anti-cancer and anti-metastasis drug development; Super-resolution STORM microscopy.

Dr. Ferraro’s research centers on extracellular signaling in host-pathogen interactions, focusing on the roles of extracellular vesicles, bioactive lipids, and endocannabinoid signaling in immune responses. The Ferraro Lab investigates novel host-pathogen interactions in Gram-negative infections, particularly the functions of host extracellular vesicles, bacterial outer membrane vesicles, and other signaling molecules in enteric infections. Dr. Ferraro’s team explores vesicle-mediated antigen trafficking and potential applications in enzyme replacement and other therapeutic strategies. Her work also characterizes the roles of bioactive lipids, such as prostaglandins and endocannabinoids, in macrophage polarization and bacterial clearance, while examining how bacterial pathogens exploit lipid signaling through virulence factors. Using multi-omics approaches, including chemical proteomics and lipidomics, her lab aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions and develop innovative host-directed therapies.

Research Interests: Host extracellular vesicles; bacterial vesicles; lipid signaling; endocannabinoid system; Salmonella and Yersinia infections; immune modulation; host-directed therapies; multi-omics approaches.

Dr. Mahoney’s research aims to explore how molecular and cellular signaling during normal development is subverted to pathogenic signaling during disease progression. Her laboratory employs innovative technology and multi-disciplinary approaches to identify molecular targets for translational applications. Her work has shown that intercellular communication, through mechanisms like cell-cell adhesion, cytokine release, and the secretion of extracellular vesicles, is highly coordinated and can serve as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for healthy and disease states. For over 26 years, she has focused on the roles of desmosomal proteins in autoimmune, infectious, and inherited diseases associated with fragility and abnormality in diverse tissues such as the skin, hair, and heart. She has also developed genetically modified animal models to study these human diseases.

Her research has identified cadherin desmoglein 2 (DSG2) as a novel biomarker for epithelial-derived malignancies, demonstrating that DSG2 enhances cell proliferation and malignant transformation through multiple synergistic mitogenic signaling pathways and trigger changes in the cellular transcriptome and secretome. The discovery that DSG2 is overexpressed in many cancers created a window of opportunity for targeted elimination by DSG2-specific CAR-T cell therapy. An exciting paradigm shift is the recent discovery that DSG2 modulates the biogenesis of extracellular vesicles and modifies their mitogenic content, including miRNAs and proteins, providing a mechanism for cells to modulate their microenvironment. Her lab is actively engineering extracellular vesicles as therapeutic strategy to target cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Research Interests: Desmosomes; Extracellular vesicles; Epithelial-derived cancers; CAR-T therapy; Cytokines miRNAs.

Dr. Datta’s research focuses on elucidating the role of metabolism in HIV-1 biogenesis and survival in latent CNS reservoirs, and the effects of HIV-1 induced neuro-inflammatory cytokines and small extracellular vesicles released from HIV-1 infected macrophage and microglia on the regulation of astrocyte glutamate transporter, EAAT2 and neurodegeneration. He is also interested in assessing the impact of substances of abuse such as opiate and cocaine on the crosstalk between cellular metabolism and epigenetics in HIV-1 biogenesis in macrophage and microglia and astrocyte EAAT2 and non-coding RNA regulation. We are also interested in characterizing Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMV) from the Saliva of rhesus macaques infected with SIV to elucidate OMV interaction with immune cells and other cells in the oral cavity.

Research Interests: HIV-1/SIV; Extracellular vesicle; miRNA; Neurodegeneration; Saliva OMVs.

Dr. Sandau studies the role of extracellular vesicle miRNAs as biomarkers for and mediators of neurological dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. She has identified a set of extracellular vesicle miRNAs in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with increased expression in Alzheimer’s disease. These miRNAs are predicted to repress the translation of proteins integral to synaptic transmission via their roles in presynaptic neurotransmitter release and postsynaptic NMDA receptor trafficking and signaling. Her current studies are aimed to demonstrate that in Alzheimer’s disease the miRNAs increased in CSF extracellular vesicles are also increased in the brain and relate to abnormal synapse formation. She also has a collaboration with the Oregon Health & Science University Methamphetamine Research Center to investigate the potential of plasma extracellular vesicles and their miRNA cargo to serve as biosignatures for neuropsychiatric impairments that occur in addiction and impede recovery.  

Research Interests: Alzheimer’s disease; Extracellular vesicles; MiRNAs; Synaptic plasticity and transmission

Dr. Dogra has held positions at IBM Research and Yale University to drive translational research in “liquid biopsy in cancer” and “drug delivery” by bringing together clinical experimental oncology and the development of novel tools for the biosensing of genetic markers. Dr. Dogra recently filed for two US patents relating to “exosomes nanoparticles assisted drug delivery” and “tumor heterogeneity”.

Research Interests: Exosomes and extracellular vesicles; Cell-Free DNA, RNA; Proteins, bioengineering, and viruses.

Dr. Sil investigates the regulatory role of long non-coding RNAs on drugs of abuse/HIV in glial cells mediated neurodegeneration involving extracellular vesicles. Some of her recent studies focused on the HIV-associated co-morbidity of Alzheimer’s Disease. She has shown that HIV & opiates can induce astrocytic amyloidosis through a novel interaction of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 with long non-coding RNA BACE1-AS. Dr. Sil has published in 46 high-quality peer-reviewed journals including PlosBiology, Molecular Aspects of Medicine, and the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.

Research Interests: Investigating the effects of different drugs of abuse and HIV on the mechanisms involved in glial cells mediated neurodegeneration involving cellular-crosstalk by extracellular vesicles; Investigating different molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal injury and dementia in drug addicts, HIV patients, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Datta’s research focuses on elucidating the role of metabolism in HIV-1 biogenesis and survival in latent CNS reservoirs, and the effects of HIV-1 induced neuro-inflammatory cytokines and small extracellular vesicles released from HIV-1 infected macrophage and microglia on the regulation of astrocyte glutamate transporter, EAAT2 and neurodegeneration. He is also interested in assessing the impact of substances of abuse such as opiate and cocaine on the crosstalk between cellular metabolism and epigenetics in HIV-1 biogenesis in macrophage and microglia and astrocyte EAAT2 and non-coding RNA regulation. We are also interested in characterizing Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMV) from the Saliva of rhesus macaques infected with SIV to elucidate OMV interaction with immune cells and other cells in the oral cavity.

Research Interests: HIV-1/SIV; Extracellular vesicle; miRNA; Neurodegeneration; Saliva OMVs.