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Ronald C. Montelaro, PhD
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Co-Director, CVR
Professor
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
9016 BST3
3501 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261
FRIP Database
PubMed Publications
Phone: (412) 648-8869
Fax: (412) 624-4440
E-mail: rmont@cvr.pitt.edu
Webpage: http://www.cvr.pitt.edu/personnel/view.asp?uid=rmont
Research
The primary focus of the Montelaro lab is to elucidate the intricate interactions between viral pathogens and host immune responses to determine the mechanisms by with host immunity contributes to protection and disease and to serve as a basis for the development of effective vaccines. A particular interest of the lab is to develop effective strategies to overcome the challenge of natural viral antigenic variation that has evolved as a common complication to the development of effective vaccines to important viral diseases, including those related to biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. Systems currently under investigation include HIV-1 and related animal lentiviruses (SHIV, SIV, and EIAV), dengue virus, and influenza virus. Studies in these systems include investigation of the nature and role of antigenic variation during infection, the development of novel assays to characterize virus-specific innate, humoral, and cellular immune responses, and the design of engineered immunogens for effective vaccination against variant strains of a particular virus. In addition to these vaccine related studies, the lab also maintains a research program to develop novel de novo antimicrobial peptides (engineered cationic amphipathic peptides, or eCAPs) that can be used to inactivate a diverse spectrum of bacteria or enveloped viruses in a prophylactic or therapeutic treatment modalities.
Selected Publications
- Pawar, S., Mattila, J., Sturgeon, T., Lin, P., Narayan, O., Montelaro, R., and Flynn, J. (2008) Comparison of the effects of pathogenic simian human immunodeficiency virus strains SHIV89.6P and SHIV-Ku2 in cynomolgus macaques. AIDS Res. Human Retroviruses 24: 643-654.
- Yang, W., Qiu, C., Biswas, N., Jin, J., Watkins, S., Montelaro, R., Coyne, C., and Wang, T. (2008) Correlation of tight junction-like distribution of claudin-1 to the cellular tropism of HCV. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 8643-8653.
- Sun, C., Zhang, B., Jin, J., and Montelaro, R. (2008) Equine infectious anemia virus binding to the equine lentivirus receptor-1 is mediated by complex discontinuous sequences in the viral envelope gp90 protein. J. Gen. Virol. 89: 2010-2018.
- Novak, K, Diamond, W., Kirakodu, S., Peyyala, R., Anderson, K., Montelaro, R., Mietzner, T. (2007) Efficacy of de novo derived antimicrobial peptide WLBU2 against oral bacteria. Antimicrob. Agents Chemotherapy 51: 1837-1839.
- Deslouches, B., Gonzalez, I., DeAlmeida, D., Islam, K., Steele, C., Montelaro, R., and MietznerT.(2007) De novo derived cationic microbial peptides activity in a murine model of Pseudomonas
aeruginosa bacteremia. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 60: 669-672.
- Newman, J., Sturgeon, T., Gupta, P., and Montelaro, R. (2007)Differential functional phenotypes of two primary HIV-1 strains resulting from homologous point mutations in the LLP domains of the envelope gp41 intracytoplasmic domain. Virol. 371:102-116.
- Jin, J., Sturgeon,T., Chen, C., Watkins, S., Weisz, O., and Montelaro, R. (2007) Distinct assembly and budding pathways utilized by EIAV and HIV-1 revealed by bimolecular fluorescence complementations assays. J. Virol. 81:11226-11235.
- Craigo, J., Zhang, B., Barnes, S., Tagmyer, T., Cook, S., Issel, C. and Montelaro, R. (2007) Envelope variation as a primary determinant of lentiviral vaccine efficacy. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 15105-15110.
- Zhang, B., Sun, C., Cascio, M., Montelaro, R. (2008) Mapping of equine lentivirus receptor-1 residues critical for EIAV envelope binding. J. Virol. 82: 1204-1213.
- Tagmyer, T., Craigo, J., Cook, S., Issel, C., and Montelaro, R. (2008) Envelope peptide determinants of vaccine protection and the effects of sequence variation on immune recognition. J. Virol. 82:4052-4063.
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Personnel
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Corin (Torres) Ezzelarab
Research, CVR
Research Specialist IV
Center for Vaccine Research (CVR)
9052 BST3
(412) 648-8874
acj11@cvr.pitt.edu
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Ronald C. Montelaro, PhD
Member, CVR
Co-Director, CVR
Professor
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
9016 BST3
(412) 648-8869
rmont@cvr.pitt.edu
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Jonathan Damien Steckbeck, MBA
Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics Student
Center for Vaccine Research (CVR)
412-648-8874
jds170 at pitt dot edu
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Timothy J. Sturgeon
Research, CVR
Flow Cytometry Specialist
Center for Vaccine Research (CVR)
9052 BST3
(412) 383-5333
sturgeon@cvr.pitt.edu
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Baoshan Zhang, PhD
Research, CVR
Research Instructor
Center for Vaccine Research (CVR)
9052 BST3
(412) 648-8874
baz8@cvr.pitt.edu
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Alumni
Montelaro Laboratory Alumni
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Lab Photos
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Interesting Links
Center for Vaccine Research
University of Pittsburgh
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