Darrell R. Galloway, Ph.D.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Dr. Galloway's research interests have always centered around studies of infectious disease, principally vaccine development and/or immunotherapy. He is a recognized 36 expert in the field of bacterial toxins where he has published extensively on structurefunction studies of Pseudomonas exotoxin A, as well as genetic regulation of exotoxin production. Current project work includes a study of how the CD4 T follicular helper cell response in the germinal centers of lymph nodes helps to establish a long-term memory response to two plague vaccines formulated with novel adjuvants. This work is contributing significantly toward the development of a plague vaccine, as there is currently no licensed plague vaccine in the world. By extension, this project is more broadly concerned with the process of rational vaccine design by understanding the details of cellular interactions following vaccine immunization.

A more recent interest involves studies to determine the basis of microbial persistence, which is felt to be a significant factor in the realm of antibiotic resistance. Microbial persistence, which is widely recognized yet not well understood, is associated with chronic infection, as well as being a form of antimicrobial resistance and thus constitutes a major area of clinical concern for many bacterial pathogens. The development of therapeutic strategies to identify and target persistent forms of microbial pathogens is a goal of these studies. Current studies are being conducted with Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme Disease, and Burkeholderia thailandensis, a model for B. mallei (mellioidosis).

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