Harlan D. Caldwell, Ph.D.
Chief, Laboratory of Intracellular Parasites
Chief, Chlamydial Pathogenesis Section
Chlamydial Pathogenesis Section
Dr. Caldwell received his Ph.D. in pathobiology from the University of Washington in 1976. After completing a senior research fellowship in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington in 1978, Dr. Caldwell joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, as an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology. In 1980, he was recruited to NIH as a tenure-track investigator in the Laboratory of Microbial Structure and Function. He became a tenured investigator in 1986 and chief of the Laboratory of Intracellular Parasites in 1990. He is a recipient of the NIH Director’s Award, NIH Merit Award, and PHS Superior Service Award. He was appointed to the NIH Senior Biomedical Research Service in 1997. Dr. Caldwell is a member of the editorial board of Infection and Immunity and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of chlamydial pathogenesis and immunology.
Description of Research Program
The focus of our research is to understand how chlamydiae evade innate host defense mechanisms, to define mechanisms of adaptive protective immunity, and to identify protective antigens. This information is being used to design new therapeutic strategies for the prevention of human chlamydial diseases. We use in vitro and in vivo models of infection together with comparative genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, modern cell biology, and immunology to accomplish these goals.
Research Group Members
John Carlson, Ph.D., Senior Research Assistant; Bill Whitmire, Ph.D., Microbiologist; Gail Sturdevant, Ph.D., Biologist; Laszlo Kari, M.D., Research Fellow; Kena Swanson, Ph.D., Postdoctoral IRTA Fellow; Norma Olivares Zavaleta, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow; Lacey Taylor, B.S., Predoctoral IRTA Fellow; Shaun Frank, Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow; Beth Selleck, Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow; Morgan Goheen, Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow; Michaela Hasenkrug, Student IRTA; Naomi Crane, Student IRTA.
Selected Publications
To view a complete listing, visit PubMed.
Carlson JH, Whitmire WM, Crane DD, Wicke L, Virtaneva K, Sturdevant DE, Kupko JJ 3rd, Porcella SF, Martinez-Orengo N, Heinzen RA, Kari L, Caldwell HD. The Chlamydia trachomatis plasmid is a transcriptional regulator of chromosomal genes and a virulence factor. Infect Immun. 2008 Jun;76(6):2273-83.
Kari L, Whitmire WM, Carlson JH, Crane DD, Reveneau N, Nelson DE, Mabey DC, Bailey RL, Holland MJ, McClarty G, Caldwell HD. Pathogenic diversity among Chlamydia trachomatis ocular strains in nonhuman primates is affected by subtle genomic variations. J Infect Dis. 2008 Feb 1;197(3):449-56.
Swanson KA, Crane DD, Caldwell HD. Chlamydia trachomatis species-specific induction of ezrin tyrosine phosphorylation functions in pathogen entry. Infect Immun. 2007 Dec;75(12):5669-77.
Nelson DE, Taylor LD, Shannon JG, Whitmire WM, Crane DD, McClarty G, Su H, Kari L, Caldwell HD. Phenotypic rescue of Chlamydia trachomatis growth in IFN-gamma treated mouse cells by irradiated Chlamydia muridarum. Cell Microbiol. 2007 Sep;9(9):2289-98.
Crane DD, Carlson JH, Fischer ER, Bavoil P, Hsia RC, Tan C, Kuo CC, Caldwell HD. Chlamydia trachomatis polymorphic membrane protein D is a species-common pan-neutralizing antigen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Feb 7;103(6):1894-9.
Nelson DE, Virok DP, Wood H, Roshick C, Johnson RM, Whitmire WM, Crane DD, Steele-Mortimer O, Kari L, McClarty G, Caldwell HD. Chlamydial IFN-gamma immune evasion is linked to host infection tropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jul 26;102(30):10658-63.
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