Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

Spyros A Kalams

Biography

 Dr. Kalams joined the Infectious Disease staff at Vanderbilt University in 2002. Dr. Kalams is currently the director of viral immunology studies in the Vanderbilt Infectious Diseases Unit and is a co-investigator of the Vanderbilt HIV Vaccine Trials Unit (under the direction of Dr. Peter Wright). He is also the immunology core director of the newly established Vanderbilt Center For AIDS Research. The core laboratory will feature state of the art facilities that will include a true Biosafety Level 3 working environment and a Becton-Dickenson FACSaria high-speed cell-sorter currently configured for 9-color flow cytometry enclosed within the BL3 laboratory. He was previously on staff at the Partners AIDS Research center and Harvard Medical School where he was the laboratory director of the Harvard HIV vaccine trial unit. He was also the head of the core immunology laboratory for the Partners Center for AIDS Research, and the director of the Harvard immunology laboratory for the AIDS clinical trials unit. His laboratory efforts are directed toward the development of vaccination strategies to induce HIV-1-specific helper and cytotoxic T-cell responses in HIV-negative subjects, and to augment HIV-specific immune responses in HIV-infected individuals. As part of this work, his laboratory is evaluating new strategies to quantitate HIV-specific cytotoxic T cell (CTL) and helper responses, which will be important for the evaluation of vaccines entering clinical trials.

Research Interest

 T cell receptor, HIV, Hepatitis C, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Cytotoxic T lymphocytes