My academic interests span both adult and pediatric infectious diseases, as I completed both an adult and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship. I spend most of my clinical effort attending to adolescent and young adult HIV patients at Parkland’s Amelia Court HIV Clinic. My infectious diseases consult service responsibilities include both Parkland and Children’s Medical Center.
My research interests involve respiratpry tract immunology, asthma and M. pneumoniae infection. For decades Mycoplasma pneumoniae has been recognized as a common etiologic agent of acute lower respiratory infection in children and adults. More recently M. pneumoniae has been associated with reactive airway disease and asthma. This association with asthma is particularly intriguing and has been the focus of my research efforts. To study the pathogenesis of M. pneumoniae infection in the respiratory tract and its potential role in asthma, I have established a murine model of acute and chronic M. pneumoniae respiratory infection that manifests airway obstruction, airway hyperreactivity, and pulmonary inflammation. The long-term goal of these investigations is to elucidate the immunopathogenesis of acute and chronic M. pneumoniae lower respiratory tract infection, especially as related to reactive airway disease and asthma.
Results from my initial studies, as well as from other investigators, indicate that the production of chemokines and cytokines in the lower respiratory tract may play an important role in both the acute manifestations and chronic sequelae of M. pneumoniae infection. The focus of my research plan is to investigate the role of cytokines in M. pneumoniae respiratory infection; more specifically, to characterize the mechanisms by which cytokines modify airway obstruction and airway hyperreactivity observed in our murine model. This research may ultimately result in new immunomodulatory strategies to treat children and adults with infection-associated reactive airway disease and asthma.
My investigations also involve the evaluation of novel antibiotics, such as ketolides and quinolones, for the treatment of M. pneumoniae respiratory tract infection utilizing a murine model. In addition, I am involved in clinical investigations involving asthma and respiratory tract infections. Community-acquired MRSA and adolescent/young adult HIV are other areas of active research.
