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Professor of Medicine
UT Health Mc Govern Medical School
Disclosure(s): Biofire: Grant/Research Support, Honoraria
My research interest is in central nervous system infections. During my fellowship I obtained a NRSA award from the NINDS to evaluate the role of cranial imaging in adults with suspected meningitis. This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and was used by the Infectious Diseases Society of America in the Bacterial Meningitis clinical guidelines to rationalize the use of Head CT scan in patients with suspected meningitis. I joined the University of Texas Medical School in September 2008 and with funding from a K23 training grant and from the Grant A Star foundation we have enrolled over 1,500 adults and children with meningitis and encephalitis that have resulted in 56 publications. I have also obtained funding from the Baylor UT CFAR to study HIV associated neurocognitive disorders, and in collaboration with Dr. Steven P Woods from the University of Houston we have expanded these studies to evaluate the long-term neurocognitive sequelae of West Nile virus infection. I also serve as a co-investigator of the U24-funded National Neuro AIDS Tissue Consortium that evaluate patients for neurocognitive disorders at Thomas Street Health Science Center. I am also a co-investigator for an R01-funded study to evaluate the neuropathological and biochemical abnormalities observed in people living with HIV (PLWH) affected by HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) in direct comparison with those observed in other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), especially Alzheimer’s disease (AD). I have also been a co-investigator with Dr. Kristy Murray’s R01-funded West Nile cohort study where I helped organize a comprehensive neurological, ophthalmological, neurocognitive, and neuroradiological (volumetric and functional MRI) evaluation of 117 patients in collaboration with other departments and schools.
I am a member of the international NeuroCOVID consortium and we are currently investigating the impact of alcohol abuse disorders on the long-term neurological and neurocognitive outcomes of survivors of COVID -19.