Ramesh K. Akkina
Professor

Phone: 491-1009
Fax: 491-0603
Email: Ramesh.Akkina@Colostate.Edu
Office: 329 Pathology Building
Lab: 305 Pathology Building

Degrees

DVM, A.P. Agricultural University, Tirupati, India, 1972
MS, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India, 1975
PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul, 1982
Post-Doctoral, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, 1982-1985

Research Interests

Dr. Akkina's areas of research are viral pathogenesis, gene therapy, humanized mouse models and human stem cells. Modern and evolving technologies are used to solve important biological problems.

Current work involves HIV/AIDS and Dengue viral pathogenesis, gene therapy strategies to cure AIDS using novel humanized mouse model system, gene transfer into human hematopoietic stem cells utilizing retroviral vectors, microbicides to prevent HIV sexual viral transmission, human stem cells for regenerative medicine, understanding Dengue viral insect transmission, development of therapeutic antibodies and novel drugs to treat Dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Selected Publications

Pub Med for Akkina R.

Kassu A, D'Souza M, O'Connor BP, Kelly-McKnight E, Akkina R, Fontenot AP, Palmer BE. Decreased 4-1BB expression on HIV-specific CD4+ T cells is associated with sustained viral replication and reduced IL-2 production.Clin Immunol. 132:234-245, 2009

Zhou J, Swiderski P, Li H, Zhang J, Neff CP, Akkina R and Rossi JJ. Selection, characterization and application of new RNA HIV gp 120 aptamers for facile delivery of Dicer substrate siRNAs into HIV infected cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 37:3094-3109, 2009

Tamhane M. and Akkina R. Stable gene transfer of CCR5 and CXCR4 siRNAs by sleeping beauty transposon system to confer HIV resistance. AIDS Research and Therapy. 5:16, 2008

Bandi S. and Akkina R. Human embryonic stem cell (hES) derived dendritic cells are functionally normal and are susceptible to HIV-1 infection. AIDS Research and Therapy. 5:1, 2008

Anderson J, and Akkina R. HIV-1 restriction by a human-rhesus chimeric TRIM5α in CD34 cell derived macrophages in vitro and T cells in vivo in SCID-hu mice. Human Gene Therapy. 19:217-228, 2008

Berges BK, Akkina SR, Folkvord JM, Connick E and Akkina R. Mucosal transmission of R5 and X4 tropic HIV-1 via vaginal and rectal routes in humanized Rag2-/-γc-/- (RAG-hu) mice. Virology 373:342-351, 2008

Kuruvilla J, Troyer R, Devi S and Akkina R. Dengue virus infection and immune response in humanized RAG2(-/-)gamma(c)(-/-) (RAG-hu) mice. Virology 369:143-152, 2007

Anderson J and Akkina R. Complete knockdown of CCR5 by lentiviral vector expressed siRNAs and protection of transgenic macrophages against HIV-1 infection. Gene Therapy 14: 1287-97, 2007

Anderson J, Li M-J, Palmer B, Remling L, Li S, Yam P, Yee J-K, Rossi R, Zaia J, Akkina R. Safety and efficacy of a lentiviral vector containing three anti-HIV genes CCR5 ribozyme, tat-rev siRNA, and TAR decoy in SCID-hu mouse derived T cells. Molecular Ther. 15:1182-1188, 2007