CENTER FOR MICROBIAL PATHOGENESIS
Dr. Christopher Basler is one of 3 Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars among the institute’s faculty
Lead researcher awarded a $4.1 million federal grant to develop an antiviral drug targeting Ebola virus
Lead researcher awarded a $419,100 federal grant to study a virus similar to Ebola virus that causes disease in animals
Our Research
- Dr. Basler, 2018
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Press Releases
Adding a mutation to Ebola could sap its infectious power
Creating mutations in a key protein that helps Ebola escape the body’s defenses can keep the virus from making its hosts sick and activate protective immunity, researchers report.
The mutated virus even works as a vaccine to protect animals from infection with the Ebola virus, they say.
The study suggests that VP35, a protein that enables Ebola virus to block early immune responses to infection, is critical for virulence and is a potential drug target.
"The big take-home message is that we can make an Ebola virus that grows, but if we disable this function, we can now make a virus that is very highly attenuated in the animals."
- Christopher Basler, Ph.D.
Our Researchers
Dr. Christopher F. Basler is the director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and professor at Georgia State. Basler obtained his Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1995. He became professor of microbiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City in 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2014. His major research interests are immune evasion and replication mechanisms of filoviruses and other emerging RNA viruses. Notable achievements include the identification and characterization of Ebola virus and Marburg virus interferon antagonist proteins.
Dr. JoAnn Marie Tufariello, associate research professor, has been awarded a two-year, $309,849 federal grant from the Department of Defense to develop a tuberculosis vaccine using virus like particles engineered to promote a strong immune response. To date, effective vaccines that prevent the most common forms of tuberculosis do not exist.