Leadership
Dr. Jerrold Ellner
Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at BUSM
Dr. Ellner leads multidisciplinary collaborative research on TB 
and TB-HIV internationally. He has been the principal investigator of multiple projects and cooperative agreements, including the International Collaboration for AIDS Research, Preparation for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation, TB Research Unit, and currently the International Collaboration for Infectious Diseases Research (ICIDR), the TB Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium (CDRC), and the TB Research Unit (TBRU).
His main research focus is regulation of the human immune response in tuberculosis infection and disease. Th1-type responses in the blood in patient with pulmonary TB are down-regulated by over-expression of proinflammatory cytokines (TGF-ß and IL-10). At local sites of disease (bronchoalveolar lavage, pleural fluid) there is non-specific activation of the inflammatory signals and increased programmed cell death. In TB-HIV the immune activation leads to enhanced viral replication and shortens survival. Dr. Ellner’s current interests are in identifying biomarkers indicating resistance or susceptibility to TB infection and TB disease.
The Ellner Laboratory activities are distributed through two main sites: the Evans Biomedical Research Center (ERBC), which includes two BSL-3 facilities , and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory (NIEDL), both in close proximity to Boston Medical Center, the Boston University School of Medicine, and the Boston University School of Public Health.
Dr. Moses Joloba
Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, Immunology and Microbiology;
Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences at MUK
Dr. Joloba has developed skills in developing training programs, starting graduate and short courses, setting up standard laboratories, initiating and participating in successful collaborations, conducting laboratory-based research as well as training of graduate students.
Dr. Joloba’s research interests have been mainly in infectious diseases. In the past he served as the head of the National TB Reference Laboratory in Uganda, and as the director of the Tuberculosis Research Unit (TBRU) for Case Western Reserve University. Recently Dr. Joloba has researched HIV and malara co-infection and has the lead in training and establishing sites for The Epidemiology of Burkitt Lymphoma in East-African Children and Minors (EMBLEM) in Uganda, Tanzania.
The activities at the Joloba Laboratory are intertwined with multiple institutions and work groups, comprising the Mycobacteriology (BSL-III) Laboratory, the Uganda National TB Reference Laboratory, and the Joint Clinical Research Center (JCRC) TB & Immunology Laboratories.
