Rutgers University

Professor of Medicine at New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) – Rutgers University, Chief of Infectious Diseases at NJMS, Director of the UMDNJ Center for Emerging Pathogens, and Associate Dean for Clinical Research at NJMS.

Dr. Alland has been the principal investigator of multiple NIH grants relating to tuberculosis and biodefense. He is currently the Scientific Director of the TB – Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium (CDRC), a member of the Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Network, and a member of the NIH Clinical Research and Field Studies (CRFS) study section. For the past 20 years, Dr. Alland has directed a laboratory devoted to studying M. tuberculosis molecular epidemiology and phylogenetics, drug resistance and persistence, and advanced molecular diagnostics. He has a proven track record of successfully developing and then applying advanced molecular approaches to study infectious diseases. This includes a series of projects, each led by Dr. Alland, which produced the Xpert MTB/RIF assay, the first near-patient, on-demand diagnostic test for tuberculosis and resistance to rifampicin. Highly relevant to the current application, Dr. Alland identified the iniBAC operon as the first genetic cause of drug tolerance in M. tuberculosis and characterized its complex regulation. He also has extensive experience investigating the genetic causes of drug-resistant M. tuberculosis. Dr. Alland has collaborated with Dr. Jerrold Ellner for decades, starting with his involvement in the original TBRU. He has also had extensive long-term collaborations and experience in studying the mechanisms of drug action, drug resistance and persistence, and molecular diagnostics.

Dr. Ellner was trained in Medicine, Infectious Diseases and immunology at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health. He held faculty positions at Case Western Reserve University and Boston University and currently is Professor of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Ellner leads multidisciplinary collaborative research on TB and TB-HIV on a global scale. He collaborates with scientists that apply cutting-edge immunology, and microbiology (and virology in the case of TB-HIV) to the study of clinical TB in a rigorous clinical and epidemiological framework. Dr. Ellner has been the principal investigator of multiple cooperative agreements including the International Collaboration for AIDS Research, Preparation for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation, International Collaboration for Infectious Diseases Research (ICIDR), and the TB Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium (CDRC). His current area of interest includes identifying biomarkers indicating resistance or susceptibility to TB infection and TB disease. As such, he is currently the principal investigator on multidisciplinary research programs such as the Tuberculosis Research Unit (TBRU), FEND for TB, and TB-RiCC. He serves as PI for TB cohort studies in Pondicherry, India as a component of the Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT-India) Consortium and was the first US Chair of RePORT India.

Dr. Salgame leads an experimental research laboratory that studies host immunity to Tuberculosis. She has made important contributions to the field of host immune responses against mycobacterial infections, which includes having been the first to demonstrate the presence of human T-helper 1 and T-helper 2 subsets. Dr. Salgame runs a highly productive research program which has been continually well-funded by the National Institutes of Health. New research led by Dr. Salgame has established a connection between tuberculosis and infection by parasitic worms, a frequent occurrence in much of the world. In addition to studying experimental models of TB, Dr. Salgame’s laboratory also studies human tuberculosis with an emphasis on discovery of biomarkers for risk of progression to TB disease in latently-infected individuals. Her laboratory is also studying the innate immune mechanisms that protect individuals from M. tuberculosis infection following exposure. She has collaborated extensively with Drs. Ellner and Alland since 2004. Dr. Salgame is Co-investigator on the International Collaboration for Infectious Disease (ICDR) research led by Dr. Ellner. She is also collaborating with Dr. Ellner on the NIAID’s US-Indo Vaccine Program, a component of the Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT-India) Consortium. Dr. Salgame has a successful record of collaborations, extensive experience in studying host immunity in experimental models of TB, and human immunology.

Dr. W. Evan Johnson has significant experience in developing and applying data science methods and software for genomics and metagenomics data. His work includes a balance between the advancement of statistical methods, the development of software, and application in clinical contexts. Applications of his work include biomarker development, pathogen detection, pathway profiling of host and microbial communities, and host/pathogen interaction in chronic conditions such as cancer and TB. Dr. Johnson is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Data Science at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Johnson has established collaborative relationships with Drs. Salgame, Ellner, and Alland, resulting in several active research projects, joint grant funding, and multiple publications.

David Hom is an epidemiologist and Director of Research Operations in the Center for Emerging Pathogens, Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School. He serves as Program Manager for the FEND-TB program, working and directing the Operations group at Rutgers, FIND and MUSC, the clinical sites and collaborating partners towards implementation, conduct, logistics, and quality assurance of the proposed diagnostic platform reviews.

He has over 30 years of experience in the conduct and coordination of phase I/II IND clinical trials of TB immunoadjuvants (NIH TB Research Unit), evaluating TB diagnostics (NIAID TB Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium) in endemic settings, HIV/AIDS (research and treatments for mother-to-child transmission, setting up and conducting Africa’s first phase I vaccine trial), and conducting large scale TB natural history/risk of infection and host and pathogen biomarker discovery studies – at sites in Uganda, South Africa, India, Brazil (ICIDR, TB Research Unit, RePORT India), now extending into multi-regional collaborative initiatives of RePORT International in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Africa.

At Rutgers University, he leads a team of 10 dedicated professionals in clinical study coordination, data capture/management, logistics, specimen banking and pre-and post-award management across ten programs working in ten countries across five continents.

Ms. Douglass is the Associate Director of the Data and Operations Management Center (DOMC) in the Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School. She is Co-Lead of the Clinical Core, a Co-Investigator for the clinical projects in Brazil and Uganda, and the main Program Manager for the CLEAR-TB program. She is a public health specialist and researcher specializing in clinical epidemiology and the design, implementation and management of global health and translational research programs. She received her MPH from Boston University and has 15 years of implementation experience in Eastern and Southern Africa, South America and Asia. Ms. Douglass’ professional focus is on building collaborative research and sustainable training programs in low-resource areas to improve healthcare, testing, diagnostics and research capacity in areas burdened by particularly high TB and HIV prevalence. She has more than a decade of expertise in coordinating clinical research, training, and public health programs at the local, national and international level in Infectious Diseases, Population Medicine and Emergency Medicine. She has an acute interest in community based research programs and improving TB diagnostics especially in pediatric populations. Ms. Douglass is also co-founder of a non-profit Community-based Health Research Advocacy organization as well as an Adaptive and Inclusive Climbing initiative, both based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dr. Yingda Xie received her M.D. from the University of Texas in San Antonio, completed Internal Medicine residency training at Oregon Health Sciences University, and clinical and research fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Her interest in tuberculosis grew after a memorable clinical encounter during residency highlighted the outdated diagnostics and therapies used to combat the morbid, globally-prevalent disease. Dr. Xie joined Rutgers NJMS in 2019 after receiving a NIAID K22 and Gates Foundation pilot award. Her research group in the Center of Emerging Pathogens, Rutgers NJMS works on developing and optimizing clinical tools to study, diagnose, and treat tuberculosis.

Dr. Yang is a systems biologist with significant expertise in studying mammalian and bacterial cell phenotypes using predictive network models of cellular gene regulation, signaling, and metabolism. He has published extensively on mechanisms underlying antimicrobial efficacy using experimental and computational approaches which integrate high-throughput experimentation, predictive modeling, and machine learning. His research program focuses on basic and translational research into TB pathogenesis, antimicrobial resistance, and immune cell therapies.