Jerome Zack, PhD

Dr. Jerome Zack's laboratory concentrates on developing model systems which are more relevant to the pathogenic process in man than are standard in vitro culture approaches, with the eventual goal of using these systems to develop therapeutic strategies for AIDS. Zack and his colleagues are currently concentrating on three major areas of investigation, which include use of the severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)-hu mouse as an in vivo model for HIV-1-induced pathogenesis and investigating latency mechanisms and therapeutic approaches.

His current studies include factors involved in immune reconstitution following pharmacologic therapy and novel therapeutic approaches including gene therapy, development of novel in vitro culture systems which mimic the in vivo situation and molecular analysis of reverse transcription defects in non-dividing lymphocytes. Zack and his colleagues will continue to develop new model systems and explore existing models to answer important questions regarding the mechanisms associated with HIV disease progression. The members of Zack's laboratory believe that increasing the basic knowledge base regarding pathogenesis will allow a more rational approach to the development of therapeutics to either cure or greatly reduce the morbidity associated with this disease.

McCracken MN, Vatakis DN, Dixit D, McLaughlin J, Zack JA, Witte ON. Noninvasive detection of tumor-infiltrating T cells by PET reporter imaging. J Clin Invest. 2015 May;125(5):1815-26. doi: 10.1172/JCI77326. Epub 2015 Mar 30.

Chodon T, Comin-Anduix B, Chmielowski B, Koya RC, Wu Z, Auerbach M, Ng C, Avramis E, Seja E, Villanueva A, McCannel TA, Ishiyama A, Czernin J, Radu CG, Wang X, Gjertson DW, Cochran AJ, Cornetta K, Wong DJ, Kaplan-Lefko P, Hamid O, Samlowski W, Cohen PA, Daniels GA, Mukherji B, Yang L, Zack JA, Kohn DB, Heath JR, Glaspy JA, Witte ON, Baltimore D, Economou JS, Ribas A. Adoptive transfer of MART-1 T-cell receptor transgenic lymphocytes and dendritic cell vaccination in patients with metastatic melanoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2014 May 1;20(9):2457-65. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-3017. Epub 2014 Mar 14.

Karumbayaram S, Lee P, Azghadi S, Cooper AR, Kohn DB, Pyle A, Clark A, Byrne J, Zack JA, Plath K, Lowry WE. From skin punch biopsy to neurons and glia through a pluripotent cell intermediate under xenogenic-free good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 1:36-43, 2012.

Kitchen SG, Levin BR, Bristol G, Rezek V, Kim S, Aguilera-Sandoval C, Balamurugan A, Yang OO, Zack JA. In Vivo Suppression of HIV by Antigen Specific T Cells Derived from Engineered Hematopoietic Stem Cells. PLoS Pathog. 2012 Apr;8(4):e1002649. Epub 2012 Apr 12.

Kovochich M, Marsden MD, Zack JA. Activation of latent HIV using drug-loaded nanoparticles. PLoS One. 2011 Apr 5;6(4):e18270.