Southwest National Primate Research Center’s (SNPRC) veterinary team has welcomed Takashi Taguchi, D.V.M., M.Sc., M.Ap.Stat., Ph.D. as its newest faculty veterinarian 

After completing a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine at Osaka Prefecture University and practicing as small animal clinical veterinarian, Dr. Takashi Taguchi left Japan to start an international adventure that would take him from Kansas to California, then Louisiana to Texas.  

Dr. Taguchi joined Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) and Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) as an assistant professor in October 2024. He most recently served as a clinical veterinarian at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana where he supported the nonhuman primate breeding and research programs. 

He said that nonhuman primate research is one of the most impactful fields in biomedical research.  

“I knew very quickly that I wanted to be a part of great work done in this area,” said Dr. Taguchi. “My research focus has been regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Additionally, I am interested in data-driven research that can be applied to large clinical data available at the Institute. I believe there are many opportunities to explore already existing clinical data to help future nonhuman primate medicine.” 

Day-to-day, Dr. Taguchi divides his time between working on clinical cases to maintain primate health, overseeing research projects and studying new species. 

“I am learning species that I am not so familiar with, such as baboons, by shadowing senior veterinarians,” he said. “There is so much to learn from this experience, and I am really enjoying the training I am receiving.” 

For Dr. Taguchi, clinical management of colonies is one of the most fulfilling parts of his role.  

“It is very rewarding when our treatments result in better health of animals. My colleagues work tremendously hard and are happy and motivated by seeing animals thriving,” Dr. Taguchi said. “For scientific output, it is most rewarding when we see everyone’s hard work is having a real and significant impact on society. It can be a form of either a publication, seminar, novel therapeutic or personal story.” 

He is also motivated by his colleagues, who he describes as “dedicated and compassionate.” 

“Everyone I meet at Texas Biomed and SNPRC loves what they do,” Dr. Taguchi said. “They care about the animals so much and they are so friendly, fun and respectful. They make me aspire to be even more passionate about my work.” 

Dr. Taguchi is already enjoying his time in San Antonio, spending time in parks, exploring hiking trails and immersing himself in the local culture.  

“The most surprising thing I have seen so far in Texas is Buc-ees,” he said. “It is so big and there are always so many people there! The food is good though, so I can see why it’s always so crowded.” 

Dr. Taguchi holds a Master of Sciences from Western University of Health Sciences, a Ph.D. from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University, and a Master of Applied Statistics from the College of Agriculture at Louisiana State University. 

“I have lived in so many states, Kansas first, California, Louisiana,” he said. “You don’t know where life will take you. I feel very fortunate to have enjoyed all the places I have lived and to have met so many friendly people.” 

The Institute’s newest faculty member brings experience in infectious disease research and enjoys finding the art in science

Donna Perry, D.V.M., Ph.D., a veterinary pathologist who joined Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) this fall, was drawn to the Institute by its unique blend of academic research and industry partnerships.  

“Texas Biomed has a compelling focus on infectious disease and offers everything from BSL-2 to BSL-4 laboratories,” said Dr. Perry, an Associate Professor. “There’s a lot of variety in the research that is performed here. It is academic in spirit, even though it’s not a university, and that was a big draw for me. It is also appealing to work closely with industry, which we do quite frequently.”  

Dr. Perry spent her childhood in Massachusetts, surrounded by “everything from cats to horses, cows and sheep,” which helped foster an early love for animals. She gravitated toward science during her undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts, where she studied animal science.   

Now, as a veterinary pathologist at Texas Biomed with the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC), Dr. Perry’s role involves histopathology, the microscopic study of tissues that have been affected by disease. Using advanced techniques, including immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization (a way to localize a sequence of DNA or RNA in a biological sample), she is able to address complex research and diagnostic questions.  

Dr. Perry describes histology as a “complex series of beautiful patterns.” 

“Histology shows us what tissue looks like in its normal state. In different disease states, tissues respond in different patterns. Those patterns tell a story. Looking at tissues under the microscope is like looking at art,” she said.  

The structure of each tissue is directly related to its function, and histopathology is the gold standard for the diagnosis of many diseases. 

“When I first started to look at histopathology, I had a great interest in tissue response patterns to different insults and mechanisms, how response patterns informed us about potential etiologies. The association between structure and function has always been something that I find fascinating,” she said. 

After completing her anatomic pathology residency at Cornell University, Dr. Perry pursued her Ph.D. in molecular pathology at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, which is home to a nonhuman primate research colony.  

“Humans and animals share a significant number of infectious and genetic diseases. This understanding sparked my interest in working with primates from a comparative medicine standpoint – I wanted to attend Wake Forest for that reason specifically.” 

Dr. Perry said her role at Texas Biomed, which involves working with investigators to help design and facilitate studies from the earliest stages, is very fulfilling, particularly given the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues.  

“Most frequently, preclinical studies are designed to evaluate a candidate therapeutic. We are charged with helping colleagues select the appropriate model for that particular disease state and then with designing a study to determine whether the candidate therapeutic is safe and efficacious in that animal model. 

“Evaluating a candidate therapeutic through preclinical safety, dosing, and efficacy studies that proceed to clinical trials is very rewarding,” said Dr. Perry. 

Investigators come to veterinary pathologists to help answer questions in animal models after they’ve done their in vitro work in cell culture in the lab. 

“I love hearing first what the hypothesis is, what their specific aims are, and thinking about how we can use animal models to precisely answer those questions,” she said. 

Prior to joining Texas Biomed, Dr. Perry also spent time studying infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland. 

“I studied infectious disease, specifically high consequence viral pathogens, for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During COVID, everything was expedited so we did many studies and found it very rewarding to be able to see the results so quickly,” she said.  

Beyond supporting the research teams at Texas Biomed, Dr. Perry loves learning about flora and fauna and has been enjoying finding new plants and animals to observe in Texas.  

Researchers at Texas Biomed have recently received five National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants totaling more than $23 million to study fundamental mechanisms and innovative solutions to treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.

The highly competitive “R01” grants provide sustained support for research projects over three to five years. Each project builds on many years of previous research and enables critical questions to be explored about TB, HIV and the interplay between them.

“In academic biomedical research, these grants are some of the most prestigious and hard to get and we congratulate our faculty on their awards,” says Professor Shelley Cole, Texas Biomed’s Interim Vice President of Research. “Collectively, the awards reflect our Institute’s strength in the TB and HIV research fields as we strive to improve global health.”

More than 10.6 million people develop active TB, which is caused by the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), annually. About 1.6 million people die from TB each year, including about 187,000 people with HIV. TB is the leading cause of death for people with HIV.

The majority of infected individuals do not develop active TB disease but contain the bacterium in a dormant state, a condition called latent TB infection (LTBI). The number of people with LTBI is estimated to be 2 billion – representing a massive potential global health burden. Latent TB can reactivate later in life when a person becomes immunocompromised, such as becoming infected with HIV, undergoing immunotherapy for cancer, or through aging processes. Finding new ways to prevent or treat TB and HIV is critical to minimize the public health impacts of these two diseases.

Professor Smriti Mehra, Ph.D., and her team will investigate if blocking a protein naturally found in the body can improve outcomes for patients with both HIV and active TB. The protein, called IDO (short for Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase), normally suppresses the immune system, preventing it from causing excessive inflammation and organ damage. Inhibiting IDO for short intervals of time has led to more successful cancer treatments. In previous studies, Dr. Mehra has shown that inhibiting IDO in conjunction with antibiotics helps improve TB treatment, and does not interfere with antiretroviral therapy for SIV, the nonhuman primate equivalent of HIV. Now, she will be able to determine what happens when IDO is blocked in conjunction with both antibiotics and antiretroviral therapy at the same time – more closely mimicking the clinical standard of care to treat both diseases.

Professor Jordi Torrelles, Ph.D., Professor Larry Schlesinger, M.D., and collaborators will study the earliest stages of TB infection in people living with HIV, and how the altered lung environment influences the progression of infection to active TB. Previous research in the Torrelles’ lab has shown that the lung environment, specifically the alveolar lining fluid, shapes the cell surface of M. tb and this affects how well the immune system controls infection. The team will use a variety of innovative models – including the alveolar macrophage-like (AML) cell model developed in Texas Biomed Professor Larry Schlesinger’s lab, miniature lung-on-a-chip organoids developed by collaborator Dr. Vivek Thacker at the University Hospital Heidelberg, and nonhuman primates in collaboration with Texas Biomed Professor Deepak Kaushal – to systematically determine how the alveolar lining fluid of people living with HIV alter interactions between lung immune cells and M. tb, determining the early stages of infection. The goal is to identify potential therapies, such as restoring properly functioning proteins found in the lung, to help people living with HIV better control TB.

Professor Deepak Kaushal, Ph.D., Professor Shabaana Khader from the University of Chicago, and collaborators are developing and testing a live-attenuated TB vaccine, which in previous studies has shown to be effective at preventing granulomas, a distinct cellular structure that is unique to TB, from forming in the lungs and resulting in disease. The next phase of testing will explore precisely how the vaccine prevents granulomas from forming and protects against the bacteria. The team will use advanced single cell RNA sequencing and spatial biology techniques to clarify the immune cell interactions at very high resolution. Specifically, they will explore the role of a group of immune molecules, collectively called type 1 interferon, and clarify if these molecules help or hinder the immune response to TB infection or the TB candidate vaccine. Along with clarifying how the vaccine is so successful, they anticipate the research will also reveal secrets of the innate immune system that can inform the development of other TB treatments.

Dr. Kaushal and Professor Marcus Horwitz at University of California, Los Angeles received a separate R01 earlier this year to test an ultra-short treatment regimen to prevent reactivation of latent TB following SIV co-infection, the nonhuman primate equivalent of HIV. The standard TB treatment requires large amount of antibiotics taken for nine months. The team has been exploring different anti-TB drug combinations – with the help of artificial intelligence – that can be administered for one to four weeks and prevent reactivation of latent TB following HIV co-infection. The nonhuman primate studies will provide critical preclinical data that can inform human clinical trials and if successful, lead to a major shift in how latent TB is treated.

Assistant Professor Diako Ebrahimi, Ph.D., and his team are conducting a comprehensive analysis of genetic variations in both humans and HIV to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving disparities in HIV disease outcomes. His team has analyzed data from over 2,500 diverse human donors to identify genomic and transcriptomic variations in a family of human DNA-editing enzymes, known as APOBEC3, which contribute to a significant number of mutations in HIV DNA. Simultaneously, they have employed advanced analytical techniques to map the mutational profiles of over 37,000 HIV genomes from people living with HIV. They will systematically test key mutation combinations in the lab to identify how specific interactions enable some individuals to control HIV without the need for medications, while others develop drug resistance. This research aims to provide key molecular insights to help develop targeted therapies tailored to the genetic makeup of both the donor and the virus to which they are exposed.

Associate Professor Shouxiong Huang, Ph.D., will seek to identify small molecules called metabolites that could be leveraged to fight infection and cancer. Specifically, he and his team are searching for bacterial and human metabolites that can activate an unusual group of T cells to help fight tuberculosis and cancer. Typical T cells take weeks to activate as part of the body’s adaptive immune system, but these unusual T cells, called mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, rapidly respond to infection. The key is to find which metabolites can trigger a MAIT response against TB infection and cancer cells. Dr. Huang will use advanced liquid chromatography mass spectrometry techniques to isolate metabolites and then test them in a high throughput manner to trigger effective MAIT cell responses. The work on cancer is also supported by a pilot grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Some of the above studies will involve the Southwest National Primate Research Center, which is supported by the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health under award number P51OD011133.