Dr. Vasilakis is currently a professor with tenure and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, as well as a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He earned his BA and MA degrees in biology from Hofstra University and worked for a number of years in the pharmaceutical industry, where he developed vaccine candidates for pediatric diseases based on alphavirus gene delivery systems.

He returned to academia to obtain his PhD degree from UTMB, studying the mechanisms of emergence of sylvatic dengue in the lab of Scott Weaver. After a brief postdoctoral position at the University of Pittsburgh, he came back to UTMB, where his laboratory studies the evolution and pathogenesis of arthropod-borne viruses, virus–mosquito, and virus–host interactions, for which he developed in partnership with collaborators field study sites in Borneo, Malaysia and Central and South America.  Additionally, as a member of the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses (WRCEVA), he utilizes Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to discover, characterize and annotate new and novel viruses that could lead to the development of successful countermeasures for a number of veterinary and human diseases.

Dr. Vasilakis' Lab website
Email: nivasila@utmb.edu

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