Alistair J. Ramsay, PhDLSUHSC School of Medicine

Administration	Basic Sciences	Clinical Sciences	Centers of Excellence
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About Us

	Alistair J. Ramsay, PhD Professor, Medicine Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology 533 Bolivar Street, Room 601 New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 568-8324 Fax: (504) 568-8500 aramsa@lsuhsc.edu Website
Degrees	BS Physiology - 1978 The University of Otago, New Zealand BS Microbiology - 1979 The University of Otago, New Zealand PhD Microbiology - 1986 The University of Otago, New Zealand
Bio	My broad research interests concern the immunobiology of infections by viruses and other intracellular parasites, mucosal immune regulation, and immune regulation of allergic responses. The ultimate aim is to develop improved vaccines against a variety of currently intractable diseases (eg. HIV/AIDS, TB, asthma) that have presented major difficulties for conventional approaches to vaccination. A particular focus has been HIV immunobiology and vaccine development. We have recently developed a "prime-boost" vaccination strategy that generates sustained, high-level cell-mediated immune responses against encoded HIV antigens in both mice and macaque monkeys. Successful preclinical studies have led to the initiation of clinical trials of our vaccines beginning in 2003-04. The outstanding potential of prime-boost vaccination has encouraged us to establish projects to develop effective vaccines against a variety of infectious and non-infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, Toxoplasmosis, asthma, and safer smallpox vaccines. Finally, a key area of our work is a fundamental program of research into vaccine immunology, particularly immune mechanisms underlying the generation of highly effective T cell responses that we see following prime-boost vaccination. Our ultimate aim is to optimize vaccines against individual pathogens/diseases.
Research Interests	HIV/AIDS, immunology of TB infection, immunology of Vaccination, development of novel strategies for Research page
Selected Publications	Robbins S, Ramshaw IA, Medvesckzy J, Ramsay AJ. Cidofovir provides transient protection from poxvirus infection. Antiviral Research 2005; 66(1):1-7. Kent SJ, Dale CJ, Ranasinghe C, Stratov I, DeRose R, Chea S, Montefiori DC, Thomson S, Ramshaw IA, Coupar B, Boyle DB, Law M, Wilson KW, Ramsay AJ. Mucosally-administered HIV/SIV DNA and fowlpoxvirus-based recombinant vaccines reduce acute phase viral replication in macaques following vaginal challenge with CCR5+ SHIV SF162P3. Vaccine 2005;23(42):5009-5021. Happel KI, Lockhart E, Mason CM, Poretta E, Keoshkerian E, Odden AR, Nelson S, Ramsay AJ. Pulmonary IL-23 gene delivery increases local T cell immunity and inhibits growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lungs. Infection and Immunity 2005;73(9): 5782-5788. Zheng M, Ramsay AJ, Robichaux MB, Norris KA, Kliment C, Crowe C, Rapaka RR, Steele C, McAllister F, Shellito JE, Marrero L, Schwarzenberger P, Zhong Q, Kolls JK. CD4 T cell-independent DNA vaccination against opportunistic infections. J Clin Invest 2005;115(12):3536-3544. Kelleher AD, Puls R, Munier M, Bebbington M, Boyle D, Coupar B, French R, Fielden R, Jaramillo A, Kent S, Keoshkerian E, Kippax S, Law M, Purcell D, Ramsay AJ, Ramshaw I, Satchell C, Thomson S, Zaunders J, Cooper D, Emery S. A randomized, placebo-controlled phase I trial of DNA prime, recombinant fowlpox virus boost prophylactic vaccine for HIV-1. AIDS 2006;20(2):294-297.