Tony Schountz

Professor Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology

About Tony

Dr. Tony Schountz is interested in understanding immune responses of reservoir hosts, particularly bats and rodents, of emerging zoonotic viruses that typically lead to apathogenic infections in the reservoirs, the role of immunopathology during viral infection, and vaccine development and immunomodulatory therapeutics for zoonotic viruses. Current projects in the lab examine coronavirus, henipavirus and H18 bat influenza A virus infections of bats, bat cell responses to viral infections (transcriptional, proteomic and metabolomic profiling), and bat T cell responses to viral infections.

Education

PhD, Kansas State University, 1996MS, Emporia State University, 1992BS, Newman University (Kansas), 1986

Publications

Fagre A, Lewis J, Eckley M, Zhan S, Rocha SM, Sexton NR, Burke B, Geiss BJ, Peersen O, Bass T, Kading R, Rovnak J, Ebel GD, Tjalkens RB, Aboellail T, Schountz T. SARS-CoV-2 infection, neuropathogenesis and transmission among deer mice: Implications for reverse zoonosis to New World rodents. PLoS Pathog. 2021 May 19;17(5):e1009585. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009585. PMID: 34010360.Fagre AC, Manhard J, Adams R, Eckley M, Zhan S, Lewis J, Rocha SM, Woods C, Kuo K, Liao W, Li L, Corper A, Challa D, Mount E, Tumanut C, Tjalkens RB, Aboellail T, Fan X, Schountz T. A Potent SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody That Reduces Viral Burden and Disease Severity in Syrian Hamsters. Front Immunol. 2020 Dec 18;11:614256. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.614256. PMID: 33391285; PMCID: PMC7775388.Schulz JE, Seifert SN, Thompson JT, Avanzato V, Sterling SL, Yan L, Letko MC, Matson MJ, Fischer RJ, Tremeau-Bravard A, Seetahal JFR, Ramkissoon V, Foster J, Goldstein T, Anthony SJ, Epstein JH, Laing ED, Broder CC, Carrington CVF, Schountz T, Munster VJ. Serological Evidence for Henipa-like and Filo-like Viruses in Trinidad Bats. J Infect Dis. 2020 May 11;221(Suppl 4):S375-S382. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz648. PMID: 32034942; PMCID: PMC7213578.Ciminski K, Ran W, Gorka M, Lee J, Malmlov A, Schinköthe J, Eckley M, Murrieta RA, Aboellail TA, Campbell CL, Ebel GD, Ma J, Pohlmann A, Franzke K, Ulrich R, Hoffmann D, García-Sastre A, Ma W, Schountz T*, Beer M, Schwemmle M. Bat influenza viruses transmit among bats but are poorly adapted to non-bat species. Nat Microbiol. 2019 Dec;4(12):2298-2309. doi: 10.1038/s41564-019-0556-9. Epub 2019 Sep 16. PMID: 31527796; PMCID: PMC7758811.Schountz T, Campbell C, Wagner K, Rovnak J, Martellaro C, DeBuysscher BL, Feldmann H, Prescott J. Differential Innate Immune Responses Elicited by Nipah Virus and Cedar Virus Correlate with Disparate In Vivo Pathogenesis in Hamsters. Viruses. 2019 Mar 22;11(3):291. doi: 10.3390/v11030291. PMID: 30909389; PMCID: PMC6466075.Malmlov A, Bantle C, Aboellail T, Wagner K, Campbell CL, Eckley M, Chotiwan N, Gullberg RC, Perera R, Tjalkens R, Schountz T. Experimental Zika virus infection of Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) and possible entry of virus into brain via activated microglial cells. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Feb 4;13(2):e0007071. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007071. PMID: 30716104; PMCID: PMC6382173.Banerjee A, Misra V, Schountz T, Baker ML. Tools to study pathogen-host interactions in bats. Virus Res. 2018 Mar 15;248:5-12. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2018.02.013. Epub 2018 Feb 15. PMID: 29454637; PMCID: PMC7114677.Gerrard DL, Hawkinson A, Sherman T, Modahl CM, Hume G, Campbell CL, Schountz T, Frietze S. Transcriptomic Signatures of Tacaribe Virus-Infected Jamaican Fruit Bats. mSphere. 2017 Sep 27;2(5):e00245-17. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00245-17. PMID: 28959737; PMCID: PMC5615131.Schountz T, Baker ML, Butler J, Munster V. Immunological Control of Viral Infections in Bats and the Emergence of Viruses Highly Pathogenic to Humans. Front Immunol. 2017 Sep 11;8:1098. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01098. PMID: 28959255; PMCID: PMC5604070.