JohnT. West, PhD grew up in Jackson, MS and received both a BS and MS inbiochemistry and molecular biology from Mississippi State University. At thatpoint in time, the impact of the worldwide AIDS pandemic was just beingappreciated. Dr. West’s PhD training occurred at the University of Alabama atBirmingham, Department Microbiology and Immunology in the lab of the UAB Centerfor AIDS Research Director, Eric Hunter, PhD. Upon graduating from this highlyesteemed retrovirus research lab, he briefly focused on ex vivo HIV-1fitness modeling in human tissue implant in immunodeficient mice before joiningthe virus research group in the Nebraska Center for Virology (NCV) workingclosely with Charles Wood PhD. There he focused primarily on mother to childtransmission of HIV-1 and Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), the etiologicagent of the cutaneous and visceral endothelial tumor, KS. Dr. West joined thefaculty of the Microbiology and Immunology program at the University ofOklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) where his research emphasizedretroviral intrinsic immune mechanisms, regulation of retroviral geneexpression, HIV-1 fitness determinants, and class I major histocompatibilitycomplex antigen presentation in HIV-1 infection.
In 2013, he returned to the NCV to co-lead a team focused onHIV-1-associated malignancies with Charles Wood. The major emphases of theseinvestigations were on the pathogenesis and immune responses to KSHV and HIV-1in adult infection and disease with a focus on human cohort studies insub-Saharan Africa. In keeping with those themes, Dr. West also contributed toresearch and capacity-building endeavors designed to impart cancer virologyresearch skills and training to young investigators and technicians in Zambiaand Tanzania. He also co-directed research focused on defining HIV-1 reservoirsin post-mortem subjects with and without associated recreational cannabis use.The emphasis on interactions between substance abuse and HIV-1 is also beinginvestigated in Puerto Rican IV drug users where immunoproteomics andmass-cytometric immunophenotyping are being brought to bear in conjunction withmicrobiome data and neurocognitive performance scores to evaluate the impact ofcombined HIV and IVDU on biomes, inflammation and cognitive performance. DrWest’s team is now engaged in carefully defining the KS tumor microenvironmentfrom the transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic aspects as well attemptingto understand immune repertoires in KSHV infection and disease. These studiesare being conducted to identify vaccine targets, prognostic biomarkers, andviral or cellular antigens that might be targetable for KS prevention ortherapeutics. These HIV-1 and HIV-associated malignancy investigations have nowtransferred with the laboratory to LSUHSC in 2021 where they will continue withan emphasis on parallel investigations in the health disparate and highincidence HIV-1 associated malignancy populations of Southern Louisiana and theGulf South. In addition to continuing the NIH/NCI-, NIH/FIP- andNIH/NIDA-funded work described above, Dr. West is now the Director of theNIH/NIGMS Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) faculty, corefacility and research infrastructure development program that is thematicallyentitled the Center for Translational Viral Oncology (CTVO) at LSUHSC.
