Our lab received one of the 17 pilot grants awarded by the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) on basic SARS-CoV-2 research. SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, currently a pandemic affecting people around the globe. Dr. Doug Fischer will be leading the project to understand how the virus replicates in […]

Women aged 15-24 years account for 20% of the 1.7 million new HIV-1 infections annually around the world. That means every week nearly 6,000 young women become infected with HIV-1. As there is no vaccine for HIV-1, the CDC and WHO recommend daily, oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) for individuals who are at high risk […]

On Monday, we made the difficult decision to shut down all non-essential work in the laboratory due to the 2019 nCoV pandemic. While we think our research is important, Dr. Ambrose wants to make sure all staff and students in the laboratory and their families are safe and to help “flatten the curve.” We will […]

Our collaborator Ling Lin’s lab has a new preprint showing that SIV impairs M. tuberculosis killing by host immune responses in granulomas in a nonhuman primate model of HIV/M. tuberculosis co-infection. The data in this study suggest that the virus and M. tuberculosis have a synergistic relationship within granulomas that exacerbates disease and reactivates latent […]

On Friday, we said goodbye to Richa Dwivedi, a postdoctoral fellow who spent 1 1/2 years in the lab. She was a co-author on one paper and we expect her to have a first author publication soon. Best of luck, Richa!

Our collaborator Peijun Zhang’s laboratory recently published a new assay to automate correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) of HIV particles inside cells (see workflow below). CLEM is a method to image small fluorescent particles (in this case, fluorescently labeled HIV made by Zhou Zhong in the Ambrose lab) inside cells on electron microscopy grids […]

Zandrea was selected to co-organize the 2020 Cold Spring Harbor Retroviruses meeting with our friend Dr. Ron Swanstrom. We hope to see you there. It should be another fun meeting with great science and friends!  (If you’re lucky, Dr. John Coffin will give you a lesson on how to eat a lobster.)

Our friend and collaborator, Dr. Masa Yamashita, identified a transmitted/founder HIV-1 strain (CH040) that is resistant to a small molecule inhibitor of HIV-1 capsid (PF74). His lab identified mutations in this viral isolate that alter capsid stability and prevent an innate immune response. In our lab, Doug Fischer performed the HIV-1 capsid permeabilization assay for […]

Chandra and Zhou presented posters on their work at the Cold Spring Harbor Retroviruses on May 24th. Both had a lot of interested viewers and had great scientific discussions with colleagues. Chandra’s poster was titled “Imaging HIV-1 Transmission and Dissemination in Humanized Mice.” He was very excited to talk to Drs. Tom Hope and Walther […]

Today Doug Fischer became Dr. Doug Fischer as he successfully defended his PhD thesis in the graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine! His thesis is titled “Examination of the Role of HIV-1 Capsid Sequence on Virus Infectivity, Host Protein Interactions, and Capsid Uncoating” and has led thus […]