Medical Safety & Global Health
Open Access

Eric M Vela

Biography

Dr. Eric Vela has 12 years of experience in the field of virology; specifically specializing in viral entry and viral pathogenesis and animal modeling of various hemorrhagic fever viruses from the Arenaviridae, Flaviviridae, Filoviridae, and Bunyaviridae families.  Dr. Vela is currently the Manager of Virology at the Battelle Biomedical Research Center in Columbus, Ohio.  Dr. Vela received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and MD Anderson Cancer Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences where he studied HIV-1 entry mechanisms.  Dr. Vela then accepted a position at the University of Texas Medical in Galveston as a postdoctoral fellow.  While at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Dr. Vela studied viral entry and pathogenesis of viruses that can potentially cause hemorrhagic fever, specifically focusing on arenaviruses, which are rodent-borne, enveloped negative RNA viruses that are mainly found in the Americas and Africa.  Currently, Dr. Vela is involved in numerous viral animal modeling studies and is the lead author for the BRC Biosafety Manual.  Dr. Vela has mainly focused his research on developing BSL2/3 viral hemorrhagic fever animal models that has led to novel antiviral studies utilizing such models as surrogates.  Additionally, Dr. Vela has tested these antivirals against various BSL-4 hemorrhagic fever viruses, including Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Lassa virus, and Guanarito virus.

Research Interest

Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses.