Addo Lab

Principal Investigator: Marylyn M. Addo, MD, PhD, DTM&H, Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Lab staff: 1 post doc, 2 students, 1 technician
Contact:  617-724-3170 /maddo@partners.org
 


Dr. Addo is a physician scientist with research focus on the study of adaptive T cell immunity to HIV-1 with a special interest in factors contributing to viral control in HIV elite controllers.

While her initial work focused on understanding and dissecting the HIV-1 specific CD8 T cell response in HIV-1 controllers and progressors, her lab’s focus has now shifted to understanding the regulatory mechanisms involved in HIV-1 immune pathogenesis. Her lab specifically tries to understand the interplay between regulatory T cells, generalized immune activation and HIV-1 specific immunity.

The overall goals of the Addo lab align with the mission of the Ragon institute to gain insights into the immune pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection that can ultimately provide clues for the rational design of an HIV-1 vaccine.

Dr. Addo is currently an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Staff Physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is the Associate Director of the Harvard University CFAR International Program and serves on the Joint Commission for the Status of Women at Harvard.

Important Contributions:
First description of CTL epitopes to the regulatory HIV-1 proteins Rev and Tat - PubMed
First whole genome analysis of HIV-1 specific CD8 T cell responses on the epitope level - PubMed
Dr. Addo led the establishment of the HIV controller cohort in its early days.

Present Areas of Investigation:
Understanding the Role of Regulatory T cells in HIV-1 pathogenesis and HIV Elite control.
Investigation of the Impact of Tim-3 (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin protein-3) on HIV-1 adaptive immunity and T cell exhaustion
Assessing pathways of T cell regulation and exhaustion in pediatric HIV-1 clade C infection (collaborative work with the HIV Pathogenesis Program (HPP) in Durban, South Africa)
Dissection of the role of heme oxygenase-1 in T cell regulation and HIV immune pathogenesis

Analysis of T cell immunity to GB-Virus C in the context of HIV-1 infection

Selected Recent Publications of Interest
1. Addo MM, Draenert R, Rathod A, Verrill CL, Davis BT, Gandhi RT, Robbins GK, Basgoz NO, Stone DR, Cohen DE, Johnston MN, Flynn T, Wurcel AG, Rosenberg ES, Altfeld M, Walker BD. Fully Differentiated HIV-1 Specific CD8+ T Effector Cells Are More Frequently Detectable in Controlled than in Progressive HIV-1 Infection. PLoS ONE. 2007 Mar 28;2:e321.
2. Pereyra F, Addo MM, Kaufmann DE, Liu Y, Miura T, Rathod A, Baker B, Trocha A, Rosenberg R, Mackey E, Ueda P, Lu Z, Cohen D, Wrin T, Petropoulos CJ, Rosenberg ES, Walker BD. Genetic and immunologic heterogeneity among persons controlling HIV infection in the absence of therapy. JID 2008:197
3. Kawashima Y, Pfafferott K, Frater J, Matthews P, Payne R, Addo MM, Gatanaga H, Fujiwara M, Hachiya A, Koizumi H, Kuse N, Oka S, Duda A, Prendergast A, Crawford H, Leslie A, Brumme Z, Brumme C, Allen T, Brander C, Kaslow R, Tang J, Hunter E, Allen S, Mulenga J, Branch S, Roach T, John M, Mallal S, Ogwu A, Shapiro R, Prado JG, Fidler S, Weber J, Pybus OG, Klenerman P, Ndung'u T, Phillips R, Heckerman D, Harrigan PR, Walker BD, Takiguchi M, Goulder P. Adaptation of HIV-1 to human leukocyte antigen class I. Nature. 2009 Apr 2;458(7238):641-5.
4. Streeck H, Jolin JS, Qi Y, Yassine-Diab B, Johnson RC, Kwon DS, Addo MM, Brumme C, Routy JP, Little S, Jessen HK, Kelleher AD, Hecht FM, Sekaly RP, Rosenberg ES, Walker BD, Carrington M, Altfeld M. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1-specific CD8+ T-cell responses during primary infection are major determinants of the viral set point and loss of CD4+ T cells. J Virol. 2009 Aug;83(15):7641-8.
5. Julg B, Pereyra F, Buzón MJ, Piechocka-Trocha A, Clark MJ, Baker BM, Lian J, Miura T, Martinez-Picado J, Addo MM, Walker BD. Infrequent recovery of HIV from but robust exogenous infection of activated CD4(+) T cells in HIV elite controllers. Clin Infect Dis. 2010 Jul 15;51(2):233-8.
6. Addo MM, Altfeld M, Brainard DM, Rathod A, Piechocka-Trocha A, Fideli U, Mulenga J, Shutes E, Alvino DM, Hunter E, Allen SA, Walker BD. Lack of detectable HIV-1-specific CD8(+) T cell responses in Zambian HIV-1-exposed seronegative partners of HIV-1-positive individuals. J Infect Dis. 2011 Jan 15;203(2):258-62. Epub 2010 Dec 9.
7. Angin M, Kwon DS, Streeck H, Wen F, King M, Rezai A, Law K, Hongo T, Pyo A, Piechocka-Trocha A, Toth I, Pereyra F, Ghebremichael M, Rodig S, Milner DA, Richter J, Altfeld M, Kaufmann DE, Walker BD, Addo MM. Preserved function of regulatory T cells in chronic HIV-1 infection despite decreased numbers in blood and tissue. JID 2012 (in press)
  A full list of publications is available at Harvard Catalyst.