Srinika conducted her doctoral research under the mentorship of Prof. Andrew McMichael and Dr. Tao Dong at the University of Oxford, working on HIV-specific CD8 T cell antiviral efficacy to conserved epitopes. She completed her D.Phil (Ph.D) in February 2010 and was delighted to join the Streeck laboratory as a post-doctoral research fellow in March 2010. Srinika studies the impact of HIV-specific CD4 T cell responses in chronic HIV infection, with a particular emphasis on elucidating the immunodominance profile of HIV-specific CD4 T cell targeting, and delineating the precise HLA class II restriction of these responses. Srinika was recently awarded a competitive one year postdoctoral fellowship award from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Fund for Medical Discovery.
Publications:
1) HIV-specific CD4 T cell responses to different viral proteins have discordant associations with viral load and clinical outcome. Ranasinghe S, Flanders M, Cutler S, Soghoian DZ, Ghebremichael M, Davis I, Lindqvist M, Pereyra F, Walker BD, Heckerman D, Streeck H. J Virol. 2011 Oct 26. PubMed PMID: 22031937.
2) The Antiviral Efficacy of HIV-1 specific CD8+ T-cells to a Conserved Epitope is Heavily Dependent on the Infecting HIV-1 Isolate. Ranasinghe S, Kramer HB, Wright C, Kessler BM, DiGleria K, Zhang Y, Gillespie GM, Blais ME, Pichulik T, Simmons A, Rowland-Jones S, McMichael AJ and Dong T. PLoS Pathogens 2011 7(5): e1001341
3) Broad HIV-1 specific interleukin-21+ CD4+ T cell responses contribute to durable viral control through the modulation of HIV-specific CD8+ T cell function. Chevalier MF, Jülg B, Pyo A, Flanders M, Ranasinghe S, Soghoian DZ, Kwon DS, Rychert J, Lian J, Muller MI, Cutler S, McAndrew E, Jessen H, Pereyra F, Rosenberg ES, Altfeld M, Walker BD, Streeck H. Journal of Virology 2011 85(2): 733-741.
4) Broad TCR Usage in Functional HIV-1-Specific CD8 T-Cell Expansions Driven by Vaccination during Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. Yang H, Dong T, Turnbull E, Ranasinghe S, Ondondo B, Goonetilleke N, Winstone N, diGleria K, Bowness P, Conlon C, Borrow P, Hanke T, McMichael AJ and Dorrell L. Journal of Immunology 2007 179: 597-606.
5) Differential restriction of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 and simian immunodeficiency virus SIVmac by TRIM5alpha alleles. Ylinen L, Keckesova Z, Wilson SJ, Ranasinghe S and Towers GJ. Journal of Virology 2005 79 (18): 11580- 11587.
Posters and Presentations:
- AIDS Vaccine Conference 2011 (Bangkok). Spontaneous HIV control is associated with distinct epitopes that promiscuously bind multiple HLA class II alleles. Poster.
- Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2011 (Boston). Distinct Immunodominance Profile of HIV-1-specific CD4+ T Cells in Individuals Spontaneously Controlling Viral Replication. Young Investigator Award.
- AIDS Vaccine Conference 2010 (Atlanta). Marked differences in the immunodominance pattern of HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cell responses in subjects spontaneously controlling HIV-1 infection. Scholarship recipient.
- Keystone symposia HIV Vaccines meeting 2010 (Banff). The Antiviral Efficacy of HIV-specific CD8+ T-cells to a conserved epitope is Heavily Dependent on the Infecting HIV-1 Isolate. Scholarship recipient for an oral presentation.
- Keystone Symposia Prevention of HIV/AIDS meeting 2009 (Keystone). Cross-clade recognition of an immunodominant epitope maybe altered by clade-specific polymorphisms in the epitope flanking region: An important consideration for T-cell based vaccines. Scholarship recipient
- Keystone Symposia HIV Pathogenesis meeting 2008 (Banff). Assessing Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte Recognition and Antiviral Efficacy against HIV-1 infected CD4+ T-cells – A novel approach. Scholarship recipient