Brendan Podell

Dr. Podell's laboratory emphasizes research in mechanisms of disease, pathogenesis, and pathology. These areas of study are applied in the development of animal models to better understand host-pathogen interaction, identification of factors influencing host susceptibility to infection, and for the identification of new host-directed treatment approaches. Among animal models of tuberculosis, our laboratory focuses primarily on the guinea pig model, which most accurately reflects the pathology of human patients with active tuberculosis. This model is currently being studied to better understand the mechanisms by which diabetes increases the risk of developing active tuberculosis disease, a comorbidity of emerging importance, especially in countries where tuberculosis is endemic. In conjunction with the laboratory of Dr. Randall Basaraba, we have developed the first guinea pig model of type 2 diabetes and diabetes-tuberculosis comorbidity.