Biography

Dr. West has more than 20 years’ experience working with retroviral and herpetic pathogen infection, immune dysregulation, and neoplastic growth. He has interests in various aspects of virology including viral evolution, vaccine design, regulation of RNA processing and translation, and viral pathogenesis. 

Dr. West has spent extensive time working in Zambia and Tanzania and has a profound interest in developing innovative and cost-effective strategies to protect patients from viral infection or pathogenesis. He is currently working on an active National Institute of Health-funded research team studying HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma associated human herpesvirus. This is one of the largest collaborative research projects on HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma and has been ongoing for more than 20 years. The research project involves multiple U.S. research institutions and the University of Zambia. The project was initiated in Zambia to study the transmission of Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and was used as a model for subsequent research infrastructure development, capacity building and collaborative studies, between the United States and Zambia. 

In addition, Dr. West has mentored young investigators through research-centered project implementation efforts in Tanzania, Zambia, and the LSU Health New Orleans’ Translation Viral Oncology CoBRE program.  Dr. West also is coordinating the Mitigating Tanzanian Vulnerable Population Anal Cancers and Barriers (MTVPACB) Research Capacity Building Core. In this role, he works closely with research collaborators, the MTVPACB primary investigator, Dr. Charles Wood, and Tanzanian partners Drs. Kyaaya from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences and Mwaiselage from Ocean Road Cancer Institute. The mentoring team will focus on three key areas: implementation science in cancer research, building Tanzanian capacity to appropriately conduct anal cancer screening, and communicating awareness of stigma and psychosocial sensitivities as they pertain to vulnerable and at-risk populations.  

Dr. West’s lab is currently focused on immunological, metabolic, and genetic changes in HIV-1 infection and in HIV-associated malignancies. He is focusing on viral cancer pathogenesis including cancers caused by HR-HPV and other oncogenic viruses, epidemiology /public health, bioinformatics and biostatistics, so as to potentially develop strategies to mitigate Kaposi’s sarcoma and other HIV-associated malignancies in sub-Saharan Africa as well as South Louisiana.