Thor A. Wagner, MD

Overview

Board Certification(s)

Pediatrics
Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Medical/Professional School

Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia

Residency

Children's Hospital of New York, CHN-517, New York, Pediatrics

Fellowship

Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Infectious Disease

Clinical Interests

General pediatric infectious diseases, pediatric HIV Mechanism of persistent HIV infection despite effective treatment, improving HIV diagnostics for the low resource settings

Research Description

My research is focused on pediatric HIV infection, which accounts for 15percent of all HIV deaths.

My primary interest is understanding chronic HIV infection during antiretroviral therapy. Specifically, why doesn't antiretroviral therapy eradicate HIV infection? Is there ongoing viral replication? Is there proliferation of cells with viable proviral HIV? Can we identify the remaining infected cells? Is immune tolerance to HIV a barrier to curing HIV? Answers to these questions should help design new treatment strategies more likely to cure HIV.

My other research interest is improving infectious disease diagnostics in low resource settings. Specifically, I am working to develop a point-of-care diagnostic test for infant HIV. Currently there is no simple test to diagnose infants with HIV, and 50percent of HIV-infected children die before they can be diagnosed. To accomplish this we are utilizing state-of-the-art monoclonal antibody screening technology to optimize the sensitivity of immunoassays to detect HIV antigens.

Research Focus Area

Infectious Disease

Awards and Honors

Publications

Research Funding