UF postdoctoral fellow garners AIDS grant and cancer research award

The American Foundation for AIDS Research has selected University of Florida postdoctoral fellow James J. Kohler, Ph.D., to receive one of nine national research awards for young investigators.

Kohler works in the laboratory of Maureen Goodenow, Ph.D., in the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at UF’s College of Medicine. He will receive nearly $100,000 to conduct research into how certain proteins are activated by the human immunodeficiency virus, boosting or suppressing the body’s immune response.

The American Foundation for AIDS Research is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of AIDS research, prevention and treatment education and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy.

Kohler also recently received a Scholar-in-Training Award from the American Association for Cancer Research. He received $1,000 to cover travel expenses to the organization’s annual meeting, held recently in New Orleans.

There he presented a talk describing recent findings from his research into how HIV triggers activation of T cells, a key component of the immune system and a primary target of the virus.

He discovered that HIV does not need to invade a T cell for the cell to be spurred to respond. Instead, the process may begin as soon as the cell’s outermost layer detects proteins on the surface of the virus.

His findings also have implications for cancer research. Many patients who are HIV-positive, for example, develop a form of lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue.

“The possibility that HIV can activate immune cells like T cells could define a characteristic of this virus that creates the potential for the development of certain cancers shown to have a high affiliation with HIV infection,” said Kohler, who is affiliated with the UF Shands Cancer Center.

The UF Shands Cancer Center is an interdisciplinary initiative connecting clinical and basic researchers at the UF Health Science Center’s Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses, Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville who perform original scientific research and enhance clinical strategies for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer.