TRAC Leadership

Neel Gandhi, TB Center Co-Director and TRAC Co-Principal Investigator

Neel R. Gandhi, M.D is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology, Global Health and Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Rollins School of Public Health and Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Gandhi has been engaged in clinical research in Tuberculosis and HIV since 1998. Dr. Gandhi leads a research team focused on epidemiology, clinical and translational research studies to improve care for TB patients and create new knowledge on the factors that influence transmission and susceptibility to TB, and the emergence of drug resistance. His research group is currently engaged in molecular epidemiology and geospatial studies to identify where and what factors impact the transmission of TB. They have projects examining the safety, pharmacokinetics and molecular mechanisms of new TB drugs (e.g., bedaquiline, delamanid). Further, his group is engaged in translational studies to understand immunologic, genetic and metabolomic factors that influence whether individuals become infected with TB, if exposed, and develop active TB disease, if infected. Dr. Gandhi’s studies are currently being conducted in South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil and India

Jyothi Rengarajan, TB Center Co-Director and TRAC Co-Principal Investigator

Jyothi Rengarajan received her PhD at Harvard University in molecular immunology and conducted postdoctoral research on tuberculosis (TB) at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Emory Vaccine Center and the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine. Her research program centers on understanding the mechanisms of TB pathogenesis and host immunity in humans and animal models, specifically in mice and nonhuman primates (NHP). Using a combination of functional genomics, proteomics, microbiologic and immunologic approaches, her group studies M. tuberculosis mechanisms involved in evading host immunity and novel strategies for developing vaccines and therapeutics for TB. 

Dr. Rengarajan also conducts patient-based research through collaborative partnerships in the metro-Atlanta area, India, Brazil, Kenya and South Africa to study human immunity to latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB disease, with the goal of uncovering mechanisms of protective immunity relevant to vaccines. Through collaborative studies within the Tuberculosis Research Unit (TBRU)-ASTRa and the Refugee Clinic at the DeKalb County Health Department, she has been involved in studying immune parameters in individuals with LTBI before and after treatment with 3 months of isoniazid and rifampicin (3HP), to define antigen-specific T cell immunity associated with LTBI and its clearance. In complementary studies, they have established models of LTBI and 3HP treatment in NHPs, which could lead to improved ways to monitor efficacy of new LTBI treatment regimens.

In collaboration with Dr. Susan Ray and colleagues, Dr. Rengarajan’s group has identified and validated biomarkers of TB infection and disease in both HIV-infected and uninfected individuals and has contributed to understanding how HIV perturbs immunity to TB in humans, and in NHP models of Mtb/SIV co-infection and anti-retroviral therapy. Dr. Rengarajan has also established partnerships with NIH RePORT consortia investigators in the U.S., India and Brazil on multiple translational projects, and is involved in mentoring and training numerous undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and in career development mentoring for MD fellows and junior faculty. Dr. Rengarajan serves in leadership roles on national and international committees, including the Council for Microbial Sciences at ASM, the IMPAACT Working Group for TB Vaccines, co-chairs the T cell research community think-tank for the Bill and Melinda Gates Collaboration for TB Vaccine Development (CTVD) and serves on multiple grant review committees.

Ken Castro, TB Center Co-Director and Associate Director

Professor Kenneth G. Castro, MD is a physician-scientist trained in epidemiology, with a specialty in internal medicine and subspecialty in infectious diseases. Before accepting a full-time faculty position at Emory University in 2014, his career experience included 31 years of service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with promotion to Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. Starting with CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1983, he contributed to the early epidemiological characterization and description of risk factors associated with HIV/AIDS, and later spearheaded the development and publication of the 1993 classification system for HIV and expanded case definition for AIDS. Subsequently, he contributed to diverse outbreak investigations of HIV-associated multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and was selected to assume leadership positions as Director, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (1993-2013), and Acting Director, Division of HIV/AIDS (2013-2014). An award-winning author of more than 165 scholarly and evidence-based policy publications, he serves as a peer reviewer for numerous scientific journals and is an associate editor for the journals International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and Emerging Infectious Diseases. A native Puerto Rican, Dr. Castro speaks fluent Spanish, and has frequently served as advisor to the Puerto Rico Department of Health, the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, and several Ministries of Health in countries where TB and HIV constitute major public health problems. He is a founding member of the global Stop TB Partnership, where he served in its Executive Committee and Coordinating Board. In addition to numerous USPHS awards and medals, other professional recognitions include the prestigious Juan Carlos Finlay award (2008, conferred by the Hispanic Officers Advisory Committee, USPHS Commissioned Corps), being profiled in The Lancet's Oct 22, 2011 issue as a “Public Health Hero," the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, North America Region, and the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the U.S. Agency for International Development (both in 2014). He was promoted to the status of Fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America (2015), and received the prestigious CDC Charles C. Shepard Lifetime Science Achievement Award (2016).