Aakash Mahant Mahant, PhD

Aakash was born in India and grew up in Spain and came to USA in 2016 to finish his master degree and decided to stay here for his PhD. He did his BSc(hons) in Biotechnology at Universidad Rovira I Virgili in Tarragona (Spain) and then went to Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid) to do his masters in Advance therapies. After joining the PhD program, he joined the Clinical Investigation predoctoral program and receives his funding through the TL1 grant. His undergraduate thesis work was on developing a recombinant lysine auxotrophic BCG strain harboring an integrative glycine auxotrophic E. coli plasmid expressing HIV-1 clade A immunogen HIVA for a dual vaccine for HIV and TB. During his masters, he worked in Dr. Kami Kim’s lab characterizing repressive chromatin complexes in Toxoplasma Gondii.

In the Herold lab, Aakash is working to assess the prevention of neonatal herpes simplex virus infection through vaccination with ΔgD-2. Currently, he is conducting a clinical study to analyze the quantity and quality of antibodies that cross the placenta into cord blood and is also looking at the ability of neonatal immune cells to perform antibody dependent cell killing (ADCK).

KEY REFERENCES:

1. Petro, C., González, P. A., Cheshenko, N. & Jandl, T. Herpes simplex type 2 virus deleted in glycoprotein D protects against vaginal, skin and neural disease. eLife(2015). doi:10.7554/eLife.06054.001

2. Kohl S, West MS, Prober CG, Sullender WM, Loo LS, Arvin AM. Neonatal Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxic Antibody Levels are Associated With The Clinical Presentation of Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus Infection. J Infect Dis. 1989;160(5):770-776. doi:10.1093/infdis/160.5.770