Degrees and Certifications:
BS, MPH, PhD

Rank and Title:
Assistant Professor

Department:
Immunology/Microbiology

Endowed Professorship:

Office Location:
832 Jelke
1750 W. Harrison Street
Chicago, IL 60612

Laboratory Location:
838 Jelke
1750 W. Harrison Street
Chicago, IL 60612

Phone:
312-942-8737

Fax:
312-942-2808
312-942-6787

E-mail:
diana_huang@rush.edu

Education:
BS - University of Michigan
MPH - University of Michigan
PHD - University of Michigan

Research Areas:

Laboratory Techniques:

Hyperlinks:

Documents:

Faculty/Staff Description:
Current research interests: HIV-1 viral pathogenesis, including antiretroviral drug resistance, replication capacity and evolution. Development and evaluation of molecular assays for support of studies associated with HIV clinical trials.

One of the hallmarks of HIV-1 infection is the variability of the virus in the clinical setting. An infected individual may carry different predominant populations of virus which are selected during the long-term course of their infection. These populations may be selected for as the individual's physiologic and treatment status changes. Outside of the infected individual, different subtypes of HIV-1 are predominant in different geographic areas. Their selection and predominance in a population may be related to the cultural and physiologic status of the population at risk. There are few protocols and methodologies that allow the dissection of the interaction of different viral populations to be made for clinical settings. Knowledge of this sort is important to the management of HIV infections. Our laboratory is a component of the Virology Quality Assurance (VQA) program sponsored by the Division of AIDS. Part of the mission of this contract includes working with and facilitating activities of field laboratories and/or companies, working as a group, on basic science methodologies to be adapted for use to examine clinical questions. These tools might be used in a more clinical and diagnostic manner to answer clinically relevant scientific questions, especially within the area of anti-retroviral resistance and viral population selection and interaction. An example of this activity would be the development and evaluation of methodology to sequence regions of the protease-reverse transcriptase genes of predominant quasispecies of HIV-1 circulating in the plasma of an infected individual to detect the presence of mutations associated with anti-retroviral resistance. Our working groups began to evaluate and adapt population sequencing methodology in 1998 using in-house derived reagents on clinical samples for use in clinical settings. Two FDA -approved kits have been developed and validated with our participation. These assays are now widely used to monitor the transmission of virus and management of antiretroviral therapy. Current activities include sequencing the genomes of different HIV-1 subtype and circulating recombinant strains to characterize their genomes and their variation. Another focus is the development of real-time PCR methodology to work with HIV subtypes to develop the means to assess their replication capacity and interactions with each other in dual infections, a situation that occurs in natural infections.

Selected Publications:
Shafer RW, Levee DJ, Winters MA, Richmond KL, Huang D, and Merigan, TC: Comparison of QIAamp HCV kit spin-columns, silica beads, and phenol-chloroform for recovering human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA from plasma. J. Clinical Micro, 35:520-522.1997

Demeter LM, D'Aquila R, Weislow O, Lorenzo E, Fitzgibbon J, Sylvester S, Arens M, Fisher E, Huang D, Mayers D, Sylvester S, Arens M, Sannerud S, Rahseed S, Johnson MV, Kuritzkes D, Reichelderfer P, and Japour A. for the ACTG Sequencing Working Group. Interlaboratory concordance of DNA sequence analysis to detect drug mutations in HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. J. Virol. Methods. 75:93-104, 1998

Lurain NS, Kapell KS, Huang DD, Short, JA, Paintsil J, Winkfield E, Benedict CA, Ware CF and Bremer JW. The human cytomegalovirus UL144 open reading frame: sequence hypervariability in low-passage clinical isolates. J.Virology, 1999 10040-10050.

Lathey,J.L., Brambilla, D., Goodenow, M.M.,Nokta, M, Rasheed, S., Siwak, E.B., Bremer, J.W., Huang, D.D., Yi, Y., Reichelderfer, P.S., and Collman, R.G., for the Macrophage Tropic Viral Kinetic Team(MVTK), Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG), NIAID. Co-receptor usage was more predictive than NSI/SI phenotype for HIV replication in macrophages: is NSI/SI phenotyping sufficient? J. Leu. Biol. 68:324-330. 2000.

Dileanis, J., Brun-Vezinet. F., Buimer, M., Huang, D., Kunstman, K., Shuurman, R., Palumbo, P., Van Laethem, K., Vandamme, A., Wolinsky, S., Brown, R.C. Multi-Center Testing of the PE Biosystems Version 2 HIV-1 Genotyping Kit. pp87-91 Proceedings XIII International AIDS Conference, Durban, July 2000.  International Proceedings Division, Monduzzi, Editore.

Swanson GJ, Meyers JD and Huang DD: Restricted growth of avirulent avian reovirus strain 2177 in macrophage derived HD11 cells. Virus Research 81/1-2:103-111, 2001.

Schuurman R, Brambilla D, DeGroot T, Huang D, Land S, Bremer J, Benders I, and Boucher CAB on behalf of the the ENVA working Group and Participating Laboratories: Underestimation of HIV Type 1 drug resistance mutations: results from the ENVA-2 genotyping proficiency program. Aids Res. And Human Retro. 18:243-248, 2002.

Huang, D.D, Giesler, T.A., and Bremer, J.W. Sequence characterization of the protease and partial reverse transcriptase proteins of the NED panel, an international HIV type 1 subtype reference and standards panel. Aids Res. And Human Retro. 19:321-328, 2003

Huang DD, Eshleman SH, Brambilla DJ, Palumbo PE, and Bremer JW for the Pediatric ACTG Sequencing Working Group. Evaluation of the Editing Process in Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 genotyping. J. Clin. Micro. 41: 3265-3272, 2003.

Huang DD, Bremer JW, Brambilla D, and Palumbo P. for the Pediatric ACTG (PACTG) Sequencing Working Group. A Model for Assessment of Proficiency of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Sequencing-based Genotypic Antiretroviral Assays. J. Clin Micro. 43: 3963-3970, 2005

Lurain NS, FoxAM, Lichy HS, Bhorade SM, Ware CF, Huang DD, Kwan S-P, Garrity ER,and Chou S-W. Analysis of the human cytomegalovirus genomic region from UL146 through UL147A reveals sequence hypervariability, genotypic stability, and overlapping transcripts. Virology Journal 2006, 3:4 (12 Jan 2006)