Welcome to the Herold Lab, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
We conduct a basic, translational, and clinical research program primarily focused on preventing Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and HIV infections. Our basic science studies focus on defining the cellular signaling pathways that HSV-2 usurps to promote infection, and then exploiting this knowledge to identify novel targets for drugs or vaccines. These studies have generated significant insight into how HSV-2 enters cells, and have led to the development of a unique candidate vaccine that, in animal models, shows complete protection against highly virulent clinical isolates of HSV-1 and HSV-2. Unlike all other HSV-2 vaccines tested to date, ours does not elicit neutralizing antibodies, but rather elicits antibodies that activate Fc receptors to mediate antibody-dependent killing of infected cells. Ongoing studies are focused on identifying why this vaccine elicits this unique type of immune response, isolating the protective antibodies as candidate therapeutic drugs, and translating the work into the clinic.
The other major basic science focus of the laboratory is to understand the syndemic interactions between HIV and HSV. Epidemiological studies have consistently shown that being seropositive for HSV-2 in particular, increases the risk of HIV acquisition, shedding and transmission. Ongoing studies in the lab are exploring the effects of HSV on the mucosal immune environment (changes in vaginal microbiome and gene expression) as well as systemic effects of HSV on T cells and on the HIV reservoir. Our interest in HIV/HSV coinfections has also led us to participate in studies of candidate drugs and formulations for prevention (PrEP), with a focus on young women.
Clinical research interests also include prevention of infectious disease complications in transplantation recipients and neonates. Members of the research group are involved in studies to optimize pre-emptive prophylaxis for CMV and EBV, vaccine responses in transplantation recipients, and other related infectious complications.
We invite you to get to know our work, our people, and our papers.
Recent Publications:
Novel Mouse Model of Recurrent Sublethal Herpes Simplex Virus Infection Recapitulates Human Antibody Responses to Primary and Chronic Infection (also covered by Einstein newsroom here)
Cell-impermeable staurosporine analog targets extracellular kinases to inhibit HSV and SARS-CoV-2
