Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine  http://www.gbs.uab.edu  http://www.uab.edu/graduate  Back to Main

Faculty Detail    
Name PAUL A GOEPFERT
  
Campus Address CCB 328 Zip 2050
Phone  (205) 975-5667
E-mail  paulg@uab.edu
Other websites
     

Education
Medical School  Baylor College of Medicine    1991  MD 
Residency  UAB    1994  Internal Medicine 
Fellowship  UAB    1997  Infectious Diseases 


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Med - Infectious Diseases  Med - Infectious Diseases Professor
Center  Center for AIDS Research  Center for AIDS Research Professor
Center  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Professor
Center  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci Professor
Center  Med - Div of Human Gene Therapy  Gene Therapy Center Professor
Center  UAB Immunology Institute  UAB Immunology Institute Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program 
Immunology 
Medical Scientist Training Program 
Microbiology 
Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine 

Biographical Sketch 
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: 2003-Present Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, UAB; 2003-Present Associate Scientist, Gene Therapy Center, UAB; 2003-Present, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, UAB; 1998-Present Associate Scientist, Center for AIDS Research, UAB; 1998-2003 Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, UAB; 1997-Present Associate Scientist, Comprehensive Cancer Center, UAB; 1997-2003 Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, UAB; 1996-1997 Clinical Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseaes, Department of Medicine UAB; 1994-1996 Posdoctoral Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine UAB; 1992-1994 Resident, Department of Medicine, UAB; 1991-1992 Intern, Department of Medicine, UAB. AWARDS: 1996 J. Claude Bennett Award for Excellence in Research by a Clinical Associate Fellow, UAB; 1990 Senior AOA Member, Baylor College of Medicine; 1989 High Honors in Basic Science, Baylor College of Medicine; 1987 Outstanding Student in Chemistry

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American Association of Immunologists    http://www.aai.org/ 
American College of Physicians    https://www.acponline.org/ 
American Society for Clinical Investigatoin    www.the-asci.org 
American Society of Virology    http://www.asv.org/ 
Southern Society for Clinical Investigation    https://www.ssciweb.org/ 
 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Determining the mechanisms allowing T cells to control HIV replication in vivo
Description
Paul Goepfert's laboratory concentrates on understanding the immune correlates of protection against HIV disease progression with a focus on cell medicated immune responses (CD4 and CD8 T cells). We are utilizing a variety of techniques in our laboratory to evaluate the quality of HIV-specific T cell responses observed in patients who represent the entire spectra of HIV disease. These assays include an in vitro HIV killing and an in vitro HIV viral suppression assay. These assays measure the actual clearance of virus which has not been the focus of many CD8 T cell assays in the past. Our plan is to use these assays to measure differences in viral clearance among those chronically infected patients with varying degrees of immune control. We would also like to compare these types of responses in acutely infected patients to see how they change over the course of infection. The ultimate goal of this work is to use our findings to aid the development of an effective HIV vaccine to prevent infection and disease progression by more fully understanding correlates of immune control by T cells.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Sabbaj S, Hel Z, Richter HE, Mestecky J, Goepfert PA. Menstrual Blood as a Potential Source of Endometrial Derived CD3+ T Cells. PLoS One 6 (12): e28894, 2011  3235171 
Sabbaj S, Pass RF, Pichon S, and Goepfert PA. Glycoprotein B vaccine is capable of boosting both antibody and CD4 T-cell responses to cytomegalovirus in chronically infected women. J Infect Dis 203:1534-41, 2011  3096785 
Goepfert PA, Elizaga ML, Sato A, Qin L, Cardinali M, Hay CM, Hural J, DeRosa SC, DeFawe OD, Tomaras GD, Monefiori DC, Xu Y, Lai L, Kalams S, Baden LR, Frey SE, Blattner WA, Wyatt LS, Moss B and Robinson HL. Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity testing of DNA and recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara vaccines expressing HIV-1 virus-like particles J Infect Dis 203(5):610-619, 2011  3072720 
Bansal A, Carlson J, Yan J, Akinsiku O T, Schaefer M, Sabbaj S, Bet A, Levy DN, Heath S, Tang J, Kaslow RA, Walker BD, Ndung'u T, Goulder PJ, Heckerman D, Hunter E, and Goepfert PA. CD8 T cell response and evolutionary pressure to HIV-1 cryptic epitopes derived from antisense transcription. J Exp Med 207(1):51-59, 2010  2812545 
Bansal, A., B. Jackson, K. West, S. Wang, S. Lu, J. S. Kennedy, and P. A. Goepfert. 2008. Multifunctional T cell characteristics induced by a polyvalent DNA prime/protein boost HIV-1 vaccine regimen given to healthy adults are dependant upon the route and dose of administration. J Virol.  18448544 
Williams LD, Amatya N, Bansal A, Sabbaj S, Heath SL, Sereti I, Goepfert, PA. Immune activation is associated with CD8 T cell Interleukin-21 production in HIV-1-infected individuals. J Virol. 2014 Sep 1;88(17):10259-63  24942568 
Goepfert, P. A., W. Lumm, P. Farmer, P. Matthews, A. Prendergast, J. M. Carlson, C. A. Derdeyn, J. Tang, R. A. Kaslow, A. Bansal, K. Yusim, D. Heckerman, J. Mulenga, S. Allen, P. J. Goulder, and E. Hunter. 2008. Transmission of HIV-1 Gag immune escape mutations is associated with reduced viral load in linked recipients. J Exp Med.  18426987 
Carlson JM, Schaefer M, Monaco DC, Batorsky R, Claiborne DT, Prince J, Deymier MJ, Ende ZS, Klatt NR, DeZiel CE, Lin TH, Peng J, Seese AM, Shapiro R, Frater J, Ndung'u T, Tang J, Goepfert P, Gilmour J, Price MA, Kilembe W, Heckerman D, Goulder PJ, Allen TM, Allen S, Hunter E. HIV Transmission. Selection bias at the Heterosexual HIV-1 Transmission Bottleneck. Science. 2014 Jul 11;345(6193):1254031  25013080 
Bet A, Maze EA, Bansal A, Sterrett S, Gross A, Graff-Dubois S, Samri A, Guihot A, Katlama C, Theodorou I, Mesnard J-M, Moris A, Goepfert PA, Cardinaud S. The HIV-1 Antisense Protein (ASP) induces CD8 T cell responses during chronic infection. Retrovirology. 2015 Feb 10;12(1):15  25809376 
Bet A, Sterrett S, Sato A, Bansal A, Goepfert PA. Characterization of T-Cell Responses to Cryptic Epitopes in Recipients of a Noncodon-Optimized HIV-1 Vaccine. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2014 Feb 1;65(2):142-50.   24442221 
Bansal A, Yue L, Conway J, Yusim K, Tang J, Kappes J, Kaslow RA, Wilson CM, and Goepfert P. Immunological control of chronic HIV-1 infection: HLA-mediated immune infection and viral evolution in adolescents. AIDS 21:2387-2397, 2007  18025875 
Sabbaj S, Heath S, Bansal A, Vohra S, Kilby M, Zajac A, and Goepfert P. Functionally competent antigen-specific CD127hi memory CD8 T cells are only preserved in HIV-infected individuals treated early. J Infect Dis 195:108-117, 2007  17152014 
Yu J, Chen H, Horton H, Bansal A, McElrath J, Reichman R, Goepfert P, Jin X. Interleukin-2 reconstitutes defective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - and cytomegalovirus (CMV) - specific CD8+ T cell proliferation in HIV infection. Journal of Medical Virology 78: 1147-1157  16847956 
Bansal A, Gough E, Ritter D, Wilson C, Mulenga J, Allen S, Goepfert P. Group M-based HIV-1 Gag peptides are frequently targeted by T cells in chronically infected US and Zambian patients. AIDS 20(3):353-360, February 14, 2006  16439868 
Goepfert PA, Horton H, McElrath J, Gurunathan S, Ferrari G, Tomaras GD, Montefiori D, Allen M, Chiu YL, Rossini T, Corey L, and the NIAID HIV Vaccine Trials Network. High-Dose Recombinant Canary pox Vaccine Expressing HIV-1 Protein, in Seronegative Human Subjects. J Infect Dis. 2005 Oct 1; 192(7):1249-59  16136469 
Sabbaj S, Ghosh M, Edwards B, Leeth R, Decker D, Goepfert P, Aldrovandi G. Breast Milk Derived Antigen-Specific CD8+ T Cells: An Extralymphoid Effector Memory Cell Population in Humans J Immunol. 2005 Mar 1;174(5):2951-6  15728507 
Bansal A, Gough E, Sabbaj S, Ritter GD, Yusim K, Sfakianos G, Aldrovandi G, Kaslow RA, Wilson CM, Mulligan MJ, Kilby JM, and PA Goepfert. CD8+ T-cell responses in early HIV-1 infection are skewed towards high entropy peptides AIDS. 2005 Feb 18;19(3):241-50  15718834 
Mestecky J, Jackson S, Moldoveanu Z, Brewer LR, Kulhavy R, Prince S, Mulligan M, and Goepfert P. Paucity of antigen-specific IgA responses in sera and external secretions of HIV-type 1-infected individuals. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses 20(9):972-988, 2004  15585085 
Sabbaj S, Bansal A, Ritter GD, Perkins C, Edwards BH, Gough E, Tang J, Szinger JJ, Korber B, Wilson C, Kaslow RA, Mulligan M, and Goepfert P. Cross-reactive CD8+ T cell epitopes identified as US adolescent minorities. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 33:426-438, 2003.  12869831 
Tussey LG, Nair US, Bachinsky M, Edwards BH, Bakari J, Grimm K, Joyce J, Vessey R, Steigbigel R, Robertson MN, Shiver JW, and Goepfert PA. Antigen burden is the major determinant of the HIV specific CD8+ T cell maturation state: potential implications for therapeutic immunization. J Infect Dis 187:364-374, 2003.  12552420 
Sabbaj S, Edwards BH, Ghost MK, Semrau K, Cheelo S, Thea DM, Kuhn L, Ritter GD, Mulligan MJ, Goepfert PA, and Aldrovandi GM. Human immunodeficiency virus-specific CD8(+) T cells in human breast milk. J Virol 76:3765-7373, 2002.  12097549 
Edwards BH, Bansal A, Sabbaj S, Bakari J, Mulligan MJ, and Goepfert PA. The magnitude of functional CD8+ T cell responses to the Gag protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 correlates inversely with viral load in plasma. J Virol 76:2298-2305, 2002.  11836408