Eli Boritz, M.D., Ph.D.

Investigator

Immunology Lab

NIAID/VRC

Building 40
Room.5507A
40 Convent Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892

301-443-5398

eli.boritz@nih.gov

Research Topics

The goal of the VPDS is to help develop means of targeting virus reservoirs and reducing disease progression in people living with HIV. One path toward this goal is to clarify the fundamental biology of HIV persistence during antiretroviral therapy (ART). Motivated by the genetic and functional diversity within key cellular reservoirs for the virus, we are developing high-throughput methods for characterizing large numbers of single cells and viruses in great detail. Topics under investigation include the unique genetic programs expressed by infected cells; heterogeneity among individual infected cells as measured using “omics” tools; and the use of virus genetic analysis to detect critical events that may not be directly observable in vivo. We are investigating these issues both in individuals treated with standard-of-care ART and in study participants receiving experimental HIV cure-directed therapies.

Biography

Dr. Boritz began his HIV research career in the mid-1990s as a summer student in the laboratory of Dr. John K. Rose. An interest in fundamental and translational studies of host-virus interactions then led him to pursue combined M.D./Ph.D. training at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. He completed his Ph.D. in the Immunology Program studying HIV-specific CD4 T-cell responses with Dr. Cara Wilson. After an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he came to NIAID as a fellow in infectious diseases. Following the clinical portion of his fellowship, he joined Dr. Daniel Douek's laboratory at Vaccine Research Center, where he worked to understand the cellular and molecular events that allow HIV reservoirs to persist in vivo. He joined the NIH faculty to establish the VPDS in 2017.

Selected Publications

  1. Ko SH, Bayat Mokhtari E, Mudvari P, Stein S, Stringham CD, Wagner D, Ramelli S, Ramos-Benitez MJ, Strich JR, Davey RT Jr, Zhou T, Misasi J, Kwong PD, Chertow DS, Sullivan NJ, Boritz EA. High-throughput, single-copy sequencing reveals SARS-CoV-2 spike variants coincident with mounting humoral immunity during acute COVID-19. PLoS Pathog. 2021;17(4):e1009431.
  2. Pérez L, Anderson J, Chipman J, Thorkelson A, Chun TW, Moir S, Haase AT, Douek DC, Schacker TW, Boritz EA. Conflicting evidence for HIV enrichment in CD32(+) CD4 T cells. Nature. 2018;561(7723):E9-E16.
  3. Ko SH, Radecki P, Belinky F, Bhiman JN, Meiring S, Kleynhans J, Amoako D, Guerra Canedo V, Lucas M, Kekana D, Martinson N, Lebina L, Everatt J, Tempia S, Bylund T, Rawi R, Kwong PD, Wolter N, von Gottberg A, Cohen C, Boritz EA. Rapid intra-host diversification and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in advanced HIV infection. Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):7240.
  4. Clark IC, Mudvari P, Thaploo S, Smith S, Abu-Laban M, Hamouda M, Theberge M, Shah S, Ko SH, Pérez L, Bunis DG, Lee JS, Kilam D, Zakaria S, Choi S, Darko S, Henry AR, Wheeler MA, Hoh R, Butrus S, Deeks SG, Quintana FJ, Douek DC, Abate AR, Boritz EA. HIV silencing and cell survival signatures in infected T cell reservoirs. Nature. 2023;614(7947):318-325.
  5. Stein SR, Ramelli SC, Grazioli A, Chung JY, Singh M, Yinda CK, Winkler CW, Sun J, Dickey JM, Ylaya K, Ko SH, Platt AP, Burbelo PD, Quezado M, Pittaluga S, Purcell M, Munster VJ, Belinky F, Ramos-Benitez MJ, Boritz EA, Lach IA, Herr DL, Rabin J, Saharia KK, Madathil RJ, Tabatabai A, Soherwardi S, McCurdy MT, NIH COVID-19 Autopsy Consortium, Peterson KE, Cohen JI, de Wit E, Vannella KM, Hewitt SM, Kleiner DE, Chertow DS. SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the human body and brain at autopsy. Nature. 2022;612(7941):758-763.

Related Scientific Focus Areas

This page was last updated on Tuesday, September 10, 2024