Vir Singh

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellowship, HIV Pathogenesis, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Genomic Imprinting, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY
• PhD in Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India.

Courses Taught at ACPHS

• Microbial Genetics (BIO 340)
• Viral Pathogenesis (BIO 690)
• Journal Club (BIO 660G)
• PHAGE Discovery (BIO 145)

Research Interests

Dr. Singh has an extensive scientific background in studying molecular mechanisms associated with HIV infection and pathogenesis, genomic imprinting, molecular biology and mouse models of disease. Dr. Singh’s research interests include understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in- i) HIV associated neurological disorder, ii) HIV latency, and iii) Viral infection induced developmental defects. Two of his lab’s major projects are listed below.

Project 1: HIV associated comorbidities (neurological disorders): Introduction of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) has successfully impeded the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and people infected with HIV are living near-normal life span. Unfortunately, various reasons, including cART toxicity and low, albeit persistent viral reservoirs, put these individuals at a higher risk of developing age associated secondary disorders such as cardiovascular disease, neurological disorder, kidney disease and cancer. Dr. Singh’s recent studies have established that HIV can disrupt Blood-Brain-Barrier (BBB) integrity by specifically downregulating Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling in brain. BBB disruption is the key event leading to onset of neuroinflammation fueled by the infiltration of HIV infected/activated immune cells in the brain tissue. Dr. Singh’s ongoing research is focused at acquiring a deeper understanding of the roles played by Shh signaling in regulating brain homeostasis, specifically in response to viral infection. This line of work presents potential opportunities to design adjunct therapeutic strategies to alleviate viral infection (e.g. HIV, HTLV, HSV, JC Virus, and Zika) induced neuropathogenesis.

Project 2:  Research towards HIV cure: eliminating viral reservoirs: The biggest obstacle in achieving cure for HIV is the latent viral reservoirs which are established very early following the infection. There is an inherent heterogeneity among HIV-1 latent reservoirs presumably due to multiple epigenetic mechanisms that drive viral latency, cellular longevity, and modulation of host immune responses. It is for this reason that most of the Latency Reversing Agents (LRAs), which worked wonderfully in vitro, were found to be inefficient at affecting viral reservoirs in vivo. Hence, it is important to identify common downstream targets, which can modulate multiple cellular processes in various cell types – long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are among such effectors. Dr. Singh has initiated a novel line of investigation to study the establishment and maintenance of latency orchestrated by multiple partners, including a select class of noncoding RNAs and intrinsic factors of innate immune response that might be working synergistically to keep the integrated provirus in a repressed state. This investigation is supported by an NIH R15 award to Dr. Singh. Successful completion of this study will identify novel targets and pave the way towards HIV cure by ‘Shock and Kill” approach to eliminate latent reservoir.