Eric Harvill

BIOGRAPHY

Eric Harvill is an Associate Faculty Member who works with Faculty Member Vivek Kapur to recommend the scientific literature in their field.

Eric Harvill also has responsibility for checking the contents of the following journals to ensure that the highest quality research relevant to their own interests within these publications is comprehensively and systematically evaluated for F1000:

- European Journal of Immunology
- BMC Systems Biology

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Disease

EDUCATION:
• Postdoctoral Work, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Los Angeles
• PhD, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles
• BS with Honors in Molecular and Cell Biology, University Scholars Program, The Pennsylvania State University

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
Member of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The Harvill lab examines the interactions between microbial pathogens and host immunity in the mouse model using bacteria that naturally infect mice and closely related strains that are important human pathogens. Bordetella pertussis causes Whooping Cough in humans. Extensive vaccination limits the occurrence of severe disease in industrialized countries, but has little effect on infection rates, which are so high that nearly everyone, vaccinated or not, is infected at least once during childhood. A closely related subspecies, B. bronchiseptica, naturally infects mice and other animals, allowing the molecular basis for interactions between pathogen and host to be examined in detail. Importantly, both pathogens appear to efficiently infect mice, suggesting that there is little host specificity, and similar immune parameters appear to be involved in the control and clearance of both. We use bacterial genetics to manipulate and study the virulence factors each uses to manipulate host immunity. Simultaneously, we use mouse immunological tools to manipulate the host during infection to better understand the generation and function of immunity to respiratory pathogens.

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