Past Collaborators and Advisors and Trainees
Sharon Lewin, FRACP, PhD
Previous INHCC Advisor Dr Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne (UNIMELB); She is also a Professor of Medicine at UNIMELB and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellow. Her lab focuses on strategies to find a cure for HIV and understanding the interaction between HIV and hepatitis B virus. She was co-chair of the 20th International AIDS Conference, an elected member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society’s and chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections. Prof Lewin has authored over 260 publications and has given over 100 international invited talks on HIV cure. In 2019, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medical research, education, and clinical care in the field of infectious diseases, particularly HIV and AIDS
Previous INHCC Advisor Dr Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne (UNIMELB); She is also a Professor of Medicine at UNIMELB and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellow. Her lab focuses on strategies to find a cure for HIV and understanding the interaction between HIV and hepatitis B virus. She was co-chair of the 20th International AIDS Conference, an elected member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society’s and chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections. Prof Lewin has authored over 260 publications and has given over 100 international invited talks on HIV cure. In 2019, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medical research, education, and clinical care in the field of infectious diseases, particularly HIV and AIDS
Eugene Kroon, MD
Eugène Kroon, recently retired, was the Medical Doctor Supervisor at the IHRI, based in Bangkok. He started his career in clinical HIV research in Amsterdam in 1994 under Professor Joep Lange and has mostly worked in Thailand since 1996. The focus of his early HIV research was in new antiretroviral therapies and access to effective ART in Thailand and in emerging economies. This research contributed to marketing authorization of drugs such as nevirapine and ritonavir and also contributed to the Thai government’s decision, in the early 2000s, to expand access to ART. He also contributed to rolling out ART with the Clinton HIV-AIDS Initiative in South-Africa. His current work focuses on describing acute HIV infection and on HIV cure strategies. The RV254 study has already provided valuable insights regarding the former while this cohort of virally suppressed acutely infected subjects are now participating in HIV functional cure studies at IHRI.
Eugène Kroon, recently retired, was the Medical Doctor Supervisor at the IHRI, based in Bangkok. He started his career in clinical HIV research in Amsterdam in 1994 under Professor Joep Lange and has mostly worked in Thailand since 1996. The focus of his early HIV research was in new antiretroviral therapies and access to effective ART in Thailand and in emerging economies. This research contributed to marketing authorization of drugs such as nevirapine and ritonavir and also contributed to the Thai government’s decision, in the early 2000s, to expand access to ART. He also contributed to rolling out ART with the Clinton HIV-AIDS Initiative in South-Africa. His current work focuses on describing acute HIV infection and on HIV cure strategies. The RV254 study has already provided valuable insights regarding the former while this cohort of virally suppressed acutely infected subjects are now participating in HIV functional cure studies at IHRI.
Napapon Sailasuta, PhD
Dr. Sailasuta is a California Institute of Technology graduate. She worked for General Electric HealthCare for 15 years in the Research and Development division and has over 20 years of research and development in magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging methods. Dr. Sailasuta's primary research interest is to understand the mechanisms of glia dysfunction in HIV infection and addiction as well as neurodegerative diseases using the noninvasive multi-modalities magnetic resonance approaches. Dr. Sailasuta has developed several proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy methods to directly quantify several difficult-to-measure brain chemicals.
Dr. Sailasuta is a California Institute of Technology graduate. She worked for General Electric HealthCare for 15 years in the Research and Development division and has over 20 years of research and development in magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging methods. Dr. Sailasuta's primary research interest is to understand the mechanisms of glia dysfunction in HIV infection and addiction as well as neurodegerative diseases using the noninvasive multi-modalities magnetic resonance approaches. Dr. Sailasuta has developed several proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy methods to directly quantify several difficult-to-measure brain chemicals.
Kalpana J. Kallianpur, PhD
Dr. Kallianpur holds a PhD in physics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Kallianpur’s research interests include the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the effects of HIV on brain structure and function. She has demonstrated associations between brain atrophy and the peripheral HIV DNA reservoir. Dr. Kallianpur joined the Hawaii Center for AIDS in 2008 and the Department of Tropical Medicine in 2016. In the SEARCH 011 study of chronic HIV infection and in prior work, Dr. Kallianpur used structural MRI to examine associations between peripheral HIV DNA reservoirs and brain injury.
Dr. Kallianpur holds a PhD in physics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Kallianpur’s research interests include the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the effects of HIV on brain structure and function. She has demonstrated associations between brain atrophy and the peripheral HIV DNA reservoir. Dr. Kallianpur joined the Hawaii Center for AIDS in 2008 and the Department of Tropical Medicine in 2016. In the SEARCH 011 study of chronic HIV infection and in prior work, Dr. Kallianpur used structural MRI to examine associations between peripheral HIV DNA reservoirs and brain injury.
Linda Jagodzinski, PhD
Dr. Jagodzinski, recently retired, was the Chief, Technology Assessment Lab for Walter Reed Army Institute (WRAIR), and provides molecular testing support to clinical research studies and to the HIV Diagnostics and Reference Laboratory in the diagnosis and monitoring of HIV-1 infected individuals. She has directed and collaborated on numerous studies of HIV-1 pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, diagnosis and patient monitoring for 35 years.
Dr. Jagodzinski, recently retired, was the Chief, Technology Assessment Lab for Walter Reed Army Institute (WRAIR), and provides molecular testing support to clinical research studies and to the HIV Diagnostics and Reference Laboratory in the diagnosis and monitoring of HIV-1 infected individuals. She has directed and collaborated on numerous studies of HIV-1 pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, diagnosis and patient monitoring for 35 years.
Past INHCC Trainees
Michael Peluso, MD, MPhil, MHS
Julian Weiss, MD
Ivo N. SahBandar, MD, PhD
Gunn Pungpapong, Student Research Assistant
John Best, MD
Ryan Handoko, MD
Payal Patel, MD
Phillip Chan, MD
Michelle Chintanaphol
Michelle D'Antoni, PhD
Orlanda Goh, MD
Joanna Hellmuth, MD, MHS
Idil Kore, MD
Andrew Silverman, MD
Apirada (Ann) Rakpraja, MD
Michael Peluso, MD, MPhil, MHS
Julian Weiss, MD
Ivo N. SahBandar, MD, PhD
Gunn Pungpapong, Student Research Assistant
John Best, MD
Ryan Handoko, MD
Payal Patel, MD
Phillip Chan, MD
Michelle Chintanaphol
Michelle D'Antoni, PhD
Orlanda Goh, MD
Joanna Hellmuth, MD, MHS
Idil Kore, MD
Andrew Silverman, MD
Apirada (Ann) Rakpraja, MD
