Walker Lab

HIV, virus-specific T cells, elite controllers

Lab Overview

The Walker Laboratory focuses on learning from patients to determine how the body fights back against viral infection using HIV as a highly relevant example, trying to uncover mechanisms by which it succeeds and, importantly, why it usually fails. They study blood samples from persons with chronic HIV infection as well as from elite controllers, persons who are able to control HIV infection to undetectable levels without the need for antiretroviral therapy (ART)

Bruce D. Walker, MD

Principal Investigator

Affiliation

Director, Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard
Co-Leader, Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR)
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

About

Dr. Walker received a BS in chemistry in 1980 from the University of Colorado, Boulder, also attending the Swiss Federal Technical Institute (ETH), and his MD from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at MGH and Harvard Medical School, followed by an internship in pathology and fellowship training in infectious disease at MGH and Harvard Medical School. He is a native of Boulder, Colorado, and is board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious disease.

Recognition & Honors

Recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award
Member of the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Academy of Microbiology
Two NIH Merit Awards

Related Research Foci

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Computational Science
Fundamental Immunology

FRESH
Global Health
Immune Monitoring
Human Immunogenetics

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Related Areas of Study

Coronaviruses
HIV

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Selected Publications

Functional impairment of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells precedes aborted spontaneous control of viremia

Collins DR, Urbach JM, Racenet ZJ, Arshad U, Power KA, Newman RM, Mylvaganam GH, Ly NL, Lian X, Rull A, Rassadkina Y, Yanez AG, Peluso MJ, Deeks SG, Vidal F, Lichterfeld M, Yu XG, Gaiha GD, Allen TM, Walker BD.

Immunity. 2021;54(10):2372-84.

September 2, 2021

PMID: 34496223

Resistance of HIV-infected macrophages to CD8(+) T lymphocyte-mediated killing drives activation of the immune system

Clayton KL, Collins DR, Lengieza J, Ghebremichael M, Dotiwala F, Lieberman J, Walker BD.

Nat Immunol. 2018;19(5):475-86.

January 1, 2018

PMID: 29670239

Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1

Jiang C, Lian X, Gao C, Sun X, Einkauf KB, Chevalier JM, Chen SMY, Hua S, Rhee B, Chang K, Blackmer JE, Osborn M, Peluso MJ, Hoh R, Somsouk M, Milush J, Bertagnolli LN, Sweet SE, Varriale JA, Burbelo PD, Chun TW, Laird GM, Serrao E, Engelman AN, Carrington M, Siliciano RF, Siliciano JM, Deeks SG, Walker BD, Lichterfeld M, Yu XG.

Nature. 2020;585(7824):261-7

January 1, 2020

PMID: 32848246

Structural topology defines protective CD8+ T cell epitopes in the HIV proteome

Gaiha GD, Rossin EJ, Urbach J, Landeros C, Collins DR, Nwonu C, Muzinghi I, Anahtar MN, Waring OM, Piechocka-Trocha A, Waring M, Worrall D, Ghebremichael MS, Newman RM, Power KA, Allen TM, Chodosh J, Walker BD.

Science. 2019;364(6439):480-4

January 1, 2019

PMID: 31048489

A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies a restricted set of HIV host dependency factors

Park RJ, Wang T, Koundakjian D, Hultquist JF, Lamothe-Molina P, Monel B, Schumann K, Yu H, Krupzcak KM, Garcia-Beltran W, Piechocka-Trocha A, Krogan NJ, Marson A, Sabatini DM, Lander ES, Hacohen N, Walker BD.

Nat Genet. 2017;49(2):193-203

January 1, 2017

PMID: 27992415

Augmentation of HIV-specific CD8+ T cell and CD4+ T cell function by immediate treatment of hyperacute HIV-1 clade C infection

Ndhlovu Z, Kazer SW, Nkosi T, Ogunshola F, Muema DM, Anmole G, Swann SA, Moodley A, Dong K, Reddy T, Brockman MA, Shalek AK, Ndung'u T, Walker BD.

Science Transl Med. 2019;11(493)

January 1, 2019

PMID: 31118290

The major genetic determinants of HIV-1 control affect HLA class I peptide presentation

International HIV Controllers Study: Pereyra F, Jia X, McLaren PJ, Telenti A, De Bakker P, Walker BD, et al.

Science. 2010;330(6010):1551-7

December 10, 2010

PMID: 21051598

PD-1 expression on HIV-specific T cells is associated with T-cell exhaustion and disease progression

Day CL, Kaufmann DE, Kiepiela P, Brown JA, Moodley ES, Reddy S, Mackey EW, Miller JD, Leslie AJ, DePierres C, Mncube Z, Duraiswamy J, Zhu B, Eichbaum Q, Altfeld M, Wherry EJ, Coovadia HM, Goulder PJ, Klenerman P, Ahmed R, Freeman GJ, Walker BD.

Nature. 2006 Sep 21; 443(7109):350-4. PubMed PMID 16921384

September 21, 2006

PMID: 16921384

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