Newswise — Christopher C. Broder, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, immunology and emerging infectious diseases at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) was recently named director of USU's Emerging Infectious Diseases graduate degree program.
The Emerging Infectious Diseases program is a unique interdisciplinary offering with three academic tracks within the field of emerging infectious diseases: microbiology and immunology, pathology, or preventive medicine/parasitology, with primary interest in the pathogenesis, host response, pathology and epidemiology of infectious diseases. Research training emphasizes modern methods in molecular biology, cell biology and interdisciplinary approaches.
Dr. Broder, a nationally and internationally known scientist, is among the top one-fifth of the 100 most cited scientists in the field of microbiology, according to Thomson In-Cites.
He is actively involved in research programs supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the area of virus-host cell interactions, with a special emphasis on the development vaccines and therapeutics for HIV as well as other important emerging viral agents.
He has been a member of the USU faculty since 1996. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in marine science and molecular biology from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla., and completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Dr. Broder joined the Laboratory of Viral Diseases of the NIAID in 1989, where his research focused on HIV-1. His work there generated the model of distinct membrane fusion accessory factors as the basis for HIV-1 cell-type tropism that led to the discoveries of the CXCR4 and CCR5 HIV-1 coreceptors in 1996. That work earned him The Fellows Award for Research Excellence from the NIH Office of Science Education, and resulted in his shared receipt of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Newcomb Cleveland Prize.
Dr. Broder also developed the first full-length, soluble, oligomeric HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein known as gp140 as a potential subunit vaccine. More recent research findings from his laboratory include the discovery of the receptor protein (ephrin B2) employed by Nipah and Hendra virus for infection of their host cells.
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