About the ENVIT Program
The overall goal of “Enhancing Virology Training (ENVIT) through Summer Research” is to prepare and increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) students in virology-focused careers through didactic, hands-on, mentored, and career-development training.
Program at a Glance
1. Provide students with a 10-week virology research training that include didactic lectures in fundamentals of virology and career-development topics for virology-focused research and education career.
2. Promote evidence-based education in virology by training the students on the methods in fundamental virology research and specialized research techniques in a laboratory setting.
3. Engage each student with leading virology researchers (faculty mentor, students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff) to stimulate their interest to consider further education and training in the area of virology.
4. Develop oral and poster presentation skills of students through scientific presentations of their research internally at MMC Virology Summer Symposium and externally at one national conference.
Program Benefits
1. Fully Paid Summer Research Experience in cutting edge virology-focused research.
2. Obtain didactic and hands-on training in basic, translational, and/or clinical research.
3. Mentored research training in the laboratory of highly accomplished investigators.
4. Participate in weekly research seminar series in virology
5. Participate in small-group learning sessions in virology
6. Improve interview and oral presentation skills
7. Training in Critical and Independent thinking
8. Interact with faculty and students at Meharry and Vanderbilt
9. Present and participate in local and national meetings on virology focused research
Program Leadership
1. Program Director. Dr. Chandravanu “CV” Dash, PhD.
2. Associate Program Director. Dr. LaMonica Stewart, PhD.
3. Virology Mini-Course Director: Dr. Jui Pandhare, PhD.
4. Virology Research Laboratory Training Director: Dr. Muthukumar Balasubramaniam, PhD.
5. Chair of the Program Advisory Committee (PAC): Dr. Evangeline Motley-Johnson, PhD.
Program Mentors
Investigator Institution Research Interests
Chandravanu Dash, PhD
MMC
Retroviral Replication, Antiviral Drug Target
Chris Aiken, PhD
VUMC
Molecular Biology of Retroviruses
Vladimir Berthaud, MD
MMC
Clinical Virology, Clinical Immunology
James Crowe, MD
VUMC
Vaccines, Viral Immunology
Mark Denison, MD
VUMC
Viral Replication, Antiviral Drug Development
Xinhong Dong, PhD
MMC
Virus Assembly, Budding and Release
Iveline Georgiev, PhD
VUMC
Vaccines and Viral Immunology
David Haas, MD
VUMC
HIV Pharmacogenomics and Clinical Trials
Spyros Kalams, MD
VUMC
Vaccines and Viral Immunology
John Karijolich, PhD
VUMC
Virus Replication
John Koethe, MD
VUMC
Clinical Virology, Immunology and Clinical Trials
Bindong Liu, PhD
MMC
Retroviral Replication
Simon Mallal, MBBS
VUMC
Clinical Immunology and Clinical Pathology
Kristen M. Ogden, PhD
VUMC
RNA Virus Replication
Jui Pandhare, PhD
MMC
HIV-associated Neuronal Dysfunction
Waldemar Popik, PhD
MMC
Molecular Virology
Byeongwoon Song, PhD
MMC
Viral Replication and Host Factors
Hua Xie, PhD
MMC
Viruses and Oral Biology