Marcella Sarzotti-Kelsoe

Ongoing Applied Activities 
•I direct a Global Quality Assurance Program, which I developed and pioneered here at Duke University, to oversee compliance with Good Clinical Laboratory Practice Guidelines in three HIV vaccine trial networks (CHAVI, CAVD, Duke HVTN, EQAPOL, Duke VTEU) involving domestic and international laboratory sites.
•I also direct a Global Proficiency Testing Program for laboratories testing for neutralizing antibody function in individuals infected with HIV or vaccinated against HIV. The Program was launched in 2009.
•I provide assistance and oversight for endpoint assay standardization, qualification and validation, as well as for the QSU of the GMP facility at DHVI, which will manufacture HIV vaccine products for first-in-man Phase I trials.

Past Basic Research
•Development of T cell responses in neonates.
•Neonatal T cell receptor Vβ repertoire diversity in the peripheral T cell pool.
•The role of heat shock protein, as a natural adjuvant, at eliciting innate and adaptive immune responses.
•Development of the T cell receptor repertoire in naïve, immunodeficient infants, given bone marrow or thymic transplantation.
•Thymic output, T cell diversity and T cell function in long-term human SCID chimeras.
•Telomere length in T cells from SCID chimeras.