Biography
Sunil K. Ahuja, M.D., is professor of medicine, and of microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX He is also a Staff Physician at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS), San Antonio, TX. He also serves as the Director for the Veterans Administration Center for AIDS and HIV infection. Dr. Ahuja’s laboratory uses genetic tools to determine biological pathways and genes therein that influence HIV-AIDS pathogenesis, lupus and other diseases.
Dr. Ahuja received his medical school training at the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India and subsequently completed his residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at SUNY Downstate, New York. He completed fellowship training in infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH). He received additional research training at the Laboratory of Host Defenses at NIAID, NIH.
Dr. Ahuja is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is a recipient of the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. Dr. Ahuja’s research is also supported by the NIH, including a MERIT award and through a Veterans Administration MERIT award.
Abstract
Immunogenetic Rheostats of HIV-1 Transmission, Keys for Vaccine Development
Not all subjects are equally susceptible to acquiring HIV infection and once infected, individuals differ in their rate of progression to AIDS. There is increasing evidence that intersubject differences in HIV-AIDS susceptibility are in part dictated by genetic changes. Dr. Ahuja will investigate host genes that influence variable HIV-AIDS susceptibility and this information will help provide insights into the correlates of protection and, in turn this might help in the design and evaluation of HIV vaccines.