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Faculty Detail    
Name JOHN C KAPPES
  
Campus Address SHEL 303 Zip 2182
Phone  (205) 934-0051
E-mail  kappesjc@uab.edu
Other websites
     


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Med - Hematology & Oncology  Med - Hematology & Oncology Professor
Secondary  Microbiology  Microbiology Associate Professor
Center  Center for AIDS Research  Center for AIDS Research Professor
Center  Center for Biophysical Sciences/Engineering  Center for Biophysical Sciences/Engineering Professor
Center  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Professor
Center  Cystic Fibrosis Research Center  Cystic Fibrosis Research Center Professor
Center  UAB Immunology Institute  UAB Immunology Institute Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program 

Biographical Sketch 
John C. Kappes (b. 1957), Associate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Thomas More College (B.A. in Biology, 1981) and received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Experimental Medicine from St. Thomas Institute in 1986. Dr. Kappes completed his postdoctoral fellowship studying the molecular pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency viruses and joined the UAB faculty in 1989.



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
HIV; molecular virology and pathogenesis
Description
Dr. Kappes' research is focused on studying the molecular biology of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and the development of lentiviral-based vectors for gene delivery. These studies are helping to understand how infectious virions are formed and how the viral enzymes [reverse transcriptase (RT) and integrase (IN)], function during the early stages of the virus life cycle. By using virion associated HIV accessory proteins (Vpr and Vpx), Dr. Kappes has developed an approach for incorporating functional RT and IN into virions independently of the normal Gag-Pol packaging pathway. This has uncoupled the RT and IN function from Gag-Pol function and enabled, for the first time, a detailed molecular analysis of reverse transcription and integration in the context of replicating virus (in vivo). Based on the principles of incorporating RT and IN in trans, Dr. Kappes has developed a new generation of HIV/lentiviral-based vectors for gene therapy. Lentiviral vectors appear to be well suited for gene therapy since they can transduce nondividing (somatic) cells. By separating the expression of RT and IN from the other vector components it is possible to produce lentiviral vectors with minimal risk of recombination and the generation of replication competent virus.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Wei X, Decker JM, Liu H, Zhang Z, Arani RB, Kilby JM, Saag MS, Wu X, Shaw GM, Kappes JC. Emergence of resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in patients receiving fusion inhibitor (T-20) monotherapy. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2002 Jun;46(6):1896-905.    
Padow M, Lai L, Deivanayagam C, DeLucas LJ, Weiss RB, Dunn DM, Wu X, Kappes JC. Replication of chimeric human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) containing HIV-2 integrase (IN): naturally selected mutations in IN augment DNA synthesis. J Virol. 2003 Oct;77(20):11050-9.    
Mulky A, Sarafianos SG, Arnold E, Wu X, Kappes JC. Subunit-specific analysis of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase in vivo.
J Virol. 2004 Jul;78(13):7089-96.  		  
Mulky A, Sarafianos SG, Jia Y, Arnold E, Kappes JC. Identification of amino acid residues in the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase tryptophan-repeat motif that are required for subunit interaction using infectious virions. J Mol Biol. 2005 Jun 17;349(4):673-84. Epub 2005 Apr 7.    
Mulky A, Kappes JC. Analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase subunit structure/function in the context of infectious virions and human target cells. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2005 Sep;49(9):3762-9.