What I'm Working On

Recently, my research has expanded to examine the effects of cannabis use and HIV, as well as the impact of COVID-19, on disease progression in individuals with HIV-associated cancers. By studying autopsy cases and supplementing existing research programs, I want to generate knowledge that could inform the development of strategies to prevent both HIV and cancer disease progression in the vulnerable population.

 

Biography

Dr. Charles Wood is a Cancer Crusader Professor of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at LSU Health New Orleans. His significant academic and administrative experience includes serving as the director of a research center, as the principal investigator (PI) and Co-PI of several multi-center and multi-national collaborative projects, serving as PI of a Fogarty International training program on HIV, and a virology T32 training program.

He joined LSU Health New Orleans from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where he was the founding director of the Nebraska Center for Virology, a center that spans the entire University of Nebraska system and another Nebraska Institution, Creighton University, forming the first research network throughout the state. He has also been closely involved with the fundraising and the development of UNL’s $23 million Ken Morrison Life Sciences Research Center which houses the Virology Center exclusively. Under his tenure, the Center has grown in size and reputation. It is now an established world-class research program in viral pathogenesis and infectious diseases. It has also emerged as one of the University of Nebraska’s premier programs.

Dr. Wood began his research of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa more than 30 years ago. Dr. Wood leads research collaborations and exchanges between different partners in China and Zambia and the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center. These training and research programs have recently been expanded to Tanzania with support from the National Institute of Health. He is deeply committed to the training and development of the next generation of undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers, and has substantial experience with research ethics, research compliance, integrity, and diversity. He also served as Director of the National of Health (NIH) Fogarty International AIDS Training and Research Program, with a focus on HIV research and training of the next generation of graduate students and post-graduate researchers in China and Zambia, and most recently in Tanzania.

While with Abbott Laboratories, he was a leading member of the team that developed the world’s first Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) antibody test and was the first to clone an HIV recombinant protein to be used in western blot for confirmatory assay.

He currently directs an active NIH-funded research team studying HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma associated human herpesvirus. One of his largest collaborative research projects, which has been ongoing for more than 28 years 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.

He has served on numerous grant review panels, as well as a chartered member of the NIH AIDS and related diseases review panels, chair of several special review panels, and has been a member of several site visit teams.

He is also the founding and past president of the National IDeA (Institutional Development Award) PI Association, which represents all the funded program directors of the IDeA program in the nation.