Under the direction of Dr. Dennis Kasper the Bacteriology section of the Channing Laboratory is a very active and integrated unit with several Principal Investigators studying bacterial pathogenesis and host-parasite interactions at a molecular level. The group has major interests in bacterial surface molecules, particularly lipopolysaccharides, capsular polysaccharides and surface proteins. Organisms currently under investigation by members of our group include: group A and B streptococci, Bacteroides fragilis, Pseudomonas aerguinosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and enterococci. The overall goal of the research program is to delineate and create strategies for prevention of infection, such as vaccines, by defining the pathogenic basis of bacterial diseases. Immune evasion strategies are studied at the cellular and molecular levels and in vivo, using animal models of disease. Immunologic methods for dealing with these strategies are designed and studied. This approach has led to the successful development of vaccines and immunomodulators capable of preventing invasive infectious diseases.

The Epidemiology section, led by Dr. Frank Speizer, is divided into five programs with significant overlap of both research and support staff. The Nurses' Health Study is the longest-running and largest cohort study of risk factors for chronic diseases - such as cancer and diabetes - among women; it is one of three similar cohort studies currently conducted at the Channing Laboratory. Scientists in the chronic respiratory diseases program use population-based cohorts to study the noncancer respiratory effects of environmental tobacco smoke and have initiated several studies to explore the genetic epidemiology of asthma. These researchers have also contributed to the data relating ambient particulate exposure to excess mortality and morbidity from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The metals epidemiology program uses noninvasive methods to study the health effects of heavy metals and other potentially chronic environmental toxins. The full integration of the statistics and meta-analysis program with much of our research has enabled scientists and statisticians to develop analytic tools, including methods to assess longitudinal data, cluster, and management error issues. Researchers in the pharmacoepidemiology program collaborate with outside clinicians to study relationships between drug therapy and patient outcomes within specific populations.

The Virology program, conducted under the guidance of Dr. Elliott Kieff, is directed toward the discovery of the molecular mechanisms by which viruses cause persistent infection and human cancers and toward the development of novel intervention strategies. Two human herpes viruses, Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and Human Herpes Virus 8 (HHV8), are important causes of human cancer. EBV infection commonly results in infectious mononucleosis, but EBV also causes anaplastic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin's Disease, and lymphomas in organ transplant recipients, Human Immunodeficiency Virus infected people, and rarely, in normal people. HHV8 is the cause of Kaposi's Sarcoma and is also implicated in Multicentric Castleman's Disease and Pleural Effusion Lymphomas. Our programs are "pushing the envelope" in advanced biochemical and genetic approaches necessary for unraveling the molecular mechanisms that enable these viruses to cause cancer at the sub-cellular, cellular, primate experimental model system, and human infection levels. The Kieff, Wang, Mosialos, and Izumi laboratory research programs are centered about EBV, while the Kaye laboratory studies HHV8. The Dolin research group is directed to HIV vaccine development and testing.