Schlesinger, Larry S., M.D.

Adjunct Professor, President/CEO Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Personal Statement:

Larry S. Schlesinger, MD, is an internationally recognized authority in infectious diseases with a particular interest in tuberculosis and lung biology. As a physician scientist, his studies focus on the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and other airborne infectious agents that subvert lung immune mechanisms. TB is the deadliest infectious disease in the world.

Education

BA, Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
MD, Medicine, Rutgers Medical School

Research

Dr. Schlesinger and his research team have made major discoveries about the human immune response to pathogens, and he is translating these into host-directed drug discovery platforms. His laboratory studies innate immunity to these infectious pathogens by focusing on their interactions with human mononuclear phagocytes, which are cells that protect the body by ingesting harmful cells, bacteria or foreign particles.

Another focus of Dr. Schlesinger’s work is understanding how the alveolar (air compartments of the lung) environment affects the biology of alveolar macrophages (white blood cells) in ways that directly impact the host response to airborne infectious agents. Alveolar macrophages are considered an important boundary between the body and the outside world.

Dr. Schlesinger is also interested in the impact of diabetes on the immune response to M. tuberculosis, susceptibility to infection, and new imaging and drug discovery platforms for mycobacteria.

In the area of aging and tuberculosis, Dr. Schlesinger’s research team is studying the unique signature of the baseline inflammatory monocyte/macrophage in the setting of aging. This type of baseline inflammation is also seen in other disease states, making this research broadly applicable and important to pursue.

Awards & Accomplishments

2007- 2011 Member, CRFS NIH Study Section (Chair 10/09-06/11)
2008 Fellow, AAAS
2008 Councilor, CSCR
2011 OSU Distinguished Scholar
2011 Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
2012 Harrington Innovator Scholar
2013 NIH, NIAID Council Member
2015 College of Medicine Distinguished Professor Award
2016 Association of American Physicians

Publications

Complete List of Publications

The route by which intranasally delivered stem cells enter the central nervous
system Galeano C, Qiu Z, Mishra A, Farnsworth S, Hemmi J, Moreira A, Edenhoffer P, Hornsby P.
Cell transplantation. Forthcoming; My Bibliography [journal]
Lutz CK. A cross-species comparison of abnormal behavior in three species of
singly-housed old world monkeys. Applied animal behaviour science. 2018;
199:52-58. NIHMSID: NIHMS915890 PubMed [journal] PMID: 29422700, PMCID:
PMC5798485
Kuo AH, Li C, Mattern V, Huber HF, Comuzzie A, Cox L, Schwab M, Nathanielsz PW,
Clarke GD. Sex-dimorphic acceleration of pericardial, subcutaneous, and plasma
lipid increase in offspring of poorly nourished baboons. International journal of obesity (2005). 2018; PubMed [journal] PMID: 29463919
Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research, Biology and Management
Patterson J, Lanford RE. 3rd ed. Marini R, Wachtman L, Tardif S, Mansfield K, Fox J, editors. Boston:
ACLAM; 2018. Experimental Infections of the Common Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) in captivity and biomedical research My Bibliography [book]
Alfson KJ, Avena LE, Delgado J, Beadles MW, Patterson JL, Carrion R Jr, Griffiths
A Single Amino Acid Change in the Marburg Virus Glycoprotein Arises during Serial Cell Culture Passages and Attenuates the Virus in a Macaque Model of Disease. mSphere. 2018; 3(1). PubMed [journal] PMID: 29299527, PMCID: PMC5750385
Almodovar S, Swanson J, Giavedoni LD, Kanthaswamy S, Long CS, Voelkel NF, Edwards
MG, Folkvord JM, Connick E, Westmoreland SV, Luciw PA, Flores SC. Lung Vascular
Remodeling, Cardiac Hypertrophy, and Inflammatory Cytokines in SHIVnef-Infected Macaques. Viral immunology. 2017; PubMed [journal] PMID: 29256819
Li L, Barry V, Daffis S, Niu C, Huntzicker E, French DM, Mikaelian I, Lanford RE, Delaney WE 4th, Fletcher SP. Anti-HBV response to toll-like receptor 7 agonist GS-9620 is associated with intrahepatic aggregates of T cells and B cells. Journal of hepatology. 2017; PubMed [journal] PMID: 29247724
Chiu CY, Sánchez-San Martín C, Bouquet J, Li T, Yagi S, Tamhankar M, Hodara VL, Parodi LM, Somasekar S, Yu G, Giavedoni LD, Tardif S, Patterson J. Experimental Zika Virus Inoculation in a New World Monkey Model Reproduces Key Features of the Human Infection. Scientific reports. 2017; 7(1):17126. PubMed [journal] PMID: 29215081, PMCID: PMC5719425
Ross CN, Austad S, Brasky K, Brown CJ, Forney LJ, Gelfond JA, Lanford R, Richardson A, Tardif SD. The development of a specific pathogen free (SPF)
barrier colony of marmosets (<i>Callithrix jacchus</i>) for aging research. Aging. 2017; 9(12):2544-2558. PubMed [journal] PMID: 29227963, PMCID: PMC5764392
Havel PJ, Kievit P, Comuzzie AG, Bremer AA. Use and Importance of Nonhuman Primates in Metabolic Disease Research: Current State of the Field. ILAR journal. 2017; 58(2):251-268. PubMed [journal] PMID: 29216341