Research Summary
Dr. Ray's research focuses on viral evolution and human immunology, with a long-term interest in hepatitis C virus (HCV) sequence evolution and persistence. HCV affects more than millions of people in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide. Current treatment is highly effective but most infected people are unaware of their infection. Thus, Dr. Ray remains dedicated to enhanced screening, access to care, and rational vaccine development for HCV.
Technology Expertise Keywords
nanodiagnostics; computational biology; virology; immunology
Selected Publications
View all on PubMed
Ogega CO, Skinner NE, Blair PW, Park HS, Littlefield K, Ganesan A, Dhakal S, Ladiwala P, Antar AA, Ray SC, Betenbaugh MJ, Pekosz A, Klein SL, Manabe YC, Cox AL, Bailey JR. Durable SARS-CoV-2 B cell immunity after mild or severe disease. J Clin Invest. 2021 Apr 1;131(7). doi: 10.1172/JCI145516. PubMed PMID: 33571162; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8011891
Thielen PM, Wohl S, Mehoke T, Ramakrishnan S, Kirsche M, Falade-Nwulia O, Trovão NS, Ernlund A, Howser C, Sadowski N, Morris CP, Hopkins M, Schwartz M, Fan Y, Gniazdowski V, Lessler J, Sauer L, Schatz MC, Evans JD, Ray SC, Timp W, Mostafa HH. Genomic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 during early introduction into the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. JCI Insight. 2021 Mar 22;6(6). doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.144350. PubMed PMID: 33749660; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8026189
Woldemeskel BA, Kwaa AK, Garliss CC, Laeyendecker O, Ray SC, Blankson JN. Healthy donor T cell responses to common cold coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2. J Clin Invest. 2020 Dec 1;130(12):6631-6638. doi: 10.1172/JCI143120. PubMed PMID: 32966269; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7685719
Newman RM, Lamers SL, Weiner B, Ray SC, Colgrove RC, Diaz F, Jing L, Wang K, Saif S, Young S, Henn M, Laeyendecker O, Tobian AA, Cohen JI, Koelle DM, Quinn TC, Knipe DM. Genome Sequencing and Analysis of Geographically Diverse Clinical Isolates of Herpes Simplex Virus 2. Journal of Virology. 2015; 89(16):8219-32
Bailey JR, Wasilewski LN, Snider AE, El-Diwany R, Osburn WO, Keck Z, Foung SK, Ray SC. Naturally selected hepatitis C virus polymorphisms confer broad neutralizing antibody resistance. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2015; 125(1):437-47
Patents
Use of consensus sequence as vaccine antigen to enhance recognition of virulent viral variants
Patent # USPTO 8168771 | 05/01/2012
Synthetic hepatitis C genome and methods of making and use
Patent # USPTO 9512183 | 12/06/2016
Synthetic representative HCV subtypes, including a 1a and 1b genome, dubbed Bole1a and Bole1b, are provided using an inventive method of Bayesian phylogenetic tree analysis, ancestral sequence reconstruction and covariance analysis. Bole1a branches centrally among 390 full-genome sequences used in its design, a carefully curated 143 sequence full-genome dataset, and separate genomic regions including an independent set of 214 E1E2 sequences from a Baltimore cohort. Bole1a is phylogenetically representative of widely circulating strains. Full genome non-synonymous diversity comparison and 9-mer peptide coverage analysis showed that Bole1a is able to provide more coverage (94% and 78% respectively) than any other sequence in the dataset including H77, a traditional reference sequence. Bole1a also provides unsurpassed epitope coverage when compared to all known T cell epitopes.
Aggregation-assisted separation of plasma from whole blood
Patent # USPTO 10788480 | 09/29/2020
Methods for separating blood plasma from whole blood in the absence of performing centrifugation are provided. The method combines mechanical filtration and blood cell aggregation and is adapted for use in POC clinical testing.
