Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2007

Mentor: Donald Sodora
Department: Internal Medicine
Room number: Y9.206
Mail Code: 9113
Phone number: 8-2438
E-mail: Donald.Sodora@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title: Immune activation and AIDS in monkey models

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0824-06-07-1

Project Type (
Basic Research, using samples from animals, but not directly interacting with any animals.

Brief Description of Project:

The summer student will study immune activation in two monkey species that are susceptible to infection with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). One monkey species, rhesus macaques, develop simian AIDS within 6months to 2 years of being SIV infected. The other monkey species, sooty mangabeys, do not develop any signs of clinical AIDS and do not die of the infection. The reason that these monkeys resist progression to disease is due to host differences in these two species. The summer project will entail analyzing immune cells from these different monkey species in order to understand the immune activation during pathogenic and nonpathogenic SIV infections. The summer student will work closely with a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory on this project.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Christopher Cano summer 2006

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