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Daniel Douek, M.D., Ph.D.
 Dr.
Daniel Douek joins the VRC as a research investigator
in the Laboratory of Immunology. Dr. Douek comes to
the VRC from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center at Dallas, where he was assistant professor of
internal medicine in the division of infectious diseases.
Dr. Douek earned his bachelor's degree in physiological
sciences and received the Finals Dissertation Prize
from the University of Oxford. He received his medical
degree from the University of London, and conducted
his internship at St. Thomas' Hospital and at Kent and
Canterbury Hospital. He then performed residency training
in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Thomas' Hospital,
in renal medicine at Guy's Hospital, and in respiratory
medicine at Royal Brompton National Heart and Lung Hospital.
After earning his medical degree, Dr. Douek went on
to earn his MRCP (Member of the Royal College of Physicians)
degree and recived the Wellcome Trust Clinical Graduate
Training Fellowship award as well as the Muirhead Trust
Award for Biomedical Research. He enhanced his academic
credentials by earning a postdoctoral degree in immunology
from the University of London. Dr. Douek left London
to conduct postdoctoral work at the Aaron Diamond AIDS
Research Center in New York and at the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Dr. Douek has extensive experience in studying the
role of the human thymus in immune reconstitution. Previous
studies have shown the human thymus to be active in
maintaining immune function throughout an individual's
life, not just during development in early childhood.
Dr. Douek's studies have found that the thymus is active
in immune reconstitution in HIV-infected persons who
received antiretroviral therapy, as well as in adult
patients who have received chemotherapy. He is also
studying the thymus in reconstituting immune function
after bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy.
The information obtained from these studies will be
particularly important in developing therapies and vaccines
for HIV, cancer, and stem cell transplantation, where
immune reconstitution would require generation of new,
naive T cells from the thymus.
Dr. Douek is also analyzing T-cell immune responses
in humans, using HIV as a model. By analyzing how HIV-specific
T cells respond to HIV antigens, Dr. Douek hopes to
determine the precise role of T cells in controlling
HIV infection. The knowledge gained from these studies
should lead to a better understanding of the specific
factors that constitute a protective immune response
after vaccination or infection, which in turn will help
researchers develop strategies using T-cell immunity
to fight HIV infection.
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