Howard E. Gendelman, MD

Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases
Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience

Durham Research Center 1, Room 3008
985880 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-5880

Phone: 402-559-1173
Email

Keywords:

In the news
Professional summary
Research interests
Representative publications
Dr. Gendelman's biographical information
Visit Dr. Gendelman's laboratory

Currently recruiting graduate students. Please contact if you are interested. 

In the news:

UNMC Today | January 17, 2023
UNMC teams exploring extended-release COVID vaccine

UNeMed | October 13, 2022
Innovation Awards, Startup of the Year

UNMC Today | June 9, 2022
UNMC sees continued success in ultra-long acting HIV medicines

Nebraska Cures | April 25, 2022
2022 Honoree: Drs. Howard E. Gendelman and Bonnie Bloch

KMTV | November 16, 2021
UNMC researchers see path to eliminate HIV; genetic therapy shows promise in lab setting

Omaha World-Herald | November 10, 2021
UNMC researchers develop 'molecular scissors' to target HIV

UNMC Today | November 10, 2021
A pathway to HIV elimination

UNMC Today | September 17, 2021 
Study explores potential long-acting HIV, Hep-B treatment

UNMC Today | August 26, 2021
Research highlights

Omaha World-Herald | May 31, 2021
UNMC Researchers identify better-tolerated therapy for Parkinson's Disease

UNMC Today | May 19, 2021
Immune transformation shows promise for Parkinson's disease

UNMC Today | May, 11, 2021
UNMC, Moderna study explores Parkinson's therapy

UNMC Today | April 28, 2020  
Potential new HIV treatment developed at UNMC  

News Media Roundup: “The World's First HIV Vaccine Mimetic” 

Partnerships, broad support helping UNMC close in on a cure for HIV
Chris Dunker, Lincoln Journal Star | December 29, 2019

UNMC Today | July 3, 2019
For first time ever, researchers able to eliminate HIV from animal

Omaha World-Herald | July 3, 2019
'A cure of HIV is possible': UNMC, Temple researchers eliminate virus in humanized mice

UNMC Today | November 30, 2018
UNMC is Global Virus Network Center of Excellence

Julie Anderson, Omaha World-Herald | February 10, 2018
Chemically modified drug out of UNMC could hasten an HIV cure

UNMC Today | February 6, 2018
Chemically modified drug shows promise for HIV treatment, elimination

UNMC Today | November 13, 2017
Time out with T. O. - One neuron at a time

Dr. Gendelman discusses Parkinson's research.

See "More News" for archived media coverage.

Professional Summary

Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, and Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman is credited in unraveling how functional alterations in brain immunity induce metabolic changes and ultimately lead to neural cell damage for a broad range of infectious, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. These discoveries have had broad implications in developmental therapeutics aimed at preventing, slowing or reversing neural maladies. He is also credited for the demonstration that AIDS dementia is a reversible metabolic encephalopathy; a finding realized at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. His work has led to novel immunotherapy and nanomedicine strategies for Parkinson’s and viral diseases being tested in early clinical trials as a result of intense translational investigations.

Dr. Gendelman obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences and Russian Studies with honors from Muhlenberg College and his MD from the Pennsylvania State University-Hershey Medical Center where he was the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus. He completed a residency in Internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was a Clinical and Research Fellow in Neurology and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. He occupied senior faculty and research positions at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Center, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and the Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement in Military Medicine before joining the University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty in March of 1993. He retired from the US Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Gendelman has authored over 550 peer-reviewed publications, edited 12 books and monographs, holds 38 patents, is the Editor-In-Chief and Founder of the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology from 2004-2021 and currently NeuroImmune Pharmacology and Therapy along with service on fifteen editorial boards, national and international scientific review and federal and state committees. He has been an invited lecturer to more than 200 scientific seminars and symposia and the recipient of numerous local, national and international honors. These, include, but are not limited to, the Henry L. Moses Award in Basic Science; the Carter-Wallace Fellow for Distinction in AIDS Research, the David T. Purtilo Distinguished Chair of Pathology and Microbiology and the Margaret R. Larson Professor of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicin; Nebraska Pioneer; the UNMC Scientist Laureate; NU Outstanding Research and Creativity Award, 2013 UNMC Innovator of the Year, the 2014 Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students, the Joseph Wybran Distinguished Scientist Award and the Life Saver Award from the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.  Dr. Gendelman was named a J. William Fulbright Research Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. In 2001, he received the prestigious Jacob Javits Neuroscience Research Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Career Research Award in Medicine from the Department of Internal Medicine, UNMC.  He enjoys a current Hirsch Index of 111 included amongst a selective scientific group listed on highly cited.com as one of the top-cited scientists in his field.  He has co-founded Exavir Therapeutics, Inc. a biotechnology company developing therapies towards and cure for HIV/AIDS. In 2022, the Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures honored Dr. Gendelman with the 2022 Life Saver Award. 

Dr. Gendelman has trained more than forty scientists (students and postdoctoral fellows) who have themselves developed independent successful careers in academia and industry. Under his leadership, the department now holds scores of independent R01s or equivalent grants, four program project grants, and shares program developmental awards. His leadership is credited with the growth of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to be amongst the top-like ranked and federally funded departments (top ten) nationwide; a particularly noted feat as its position was 89 when he assumed its leadership.  That position has been held for more than a decade.

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Research Interests:

The neuroregeneration laboratory provides the student or postdoctoral fellow with broad research experiences in diagnostics, pathogenic mechanisms and therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.

The major focus for our research is on the role played by glial inflammatory activities in brain disease. The work bridges immunology, neuroscience and pharmacology and crosses disease barriers for studies of HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorders, Parkinson’s disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The major goal is to use immune-based approaches to reverse nerve cell damage.

The laboratory initiative is divided into specific programs with cross-disciplinary support provided through experienced senior scientists. Specific expertise is available in proteomics, immunology, molecular neuroscience, infectious disease, neurophysiology and neuropathogenesis.

Research priorities in nanomedicine focuses on drug delivery to the central nervous system using "smart" drugs that are packaged into immunocytes and use “Trojan horse” cell-based mechanisms to by-pass the blood-brain barrier and enter diseased brain areas. These are intertwined with studies of disease pathogenesis focused on studies of the biophysical and effector cell properties of blood-borne macrophages that modulate leukocyte entry and glial immunity.

Our nanomedicine program provides laboratory experiences in nanoformulations and physical chemistry linked to characterization of nanoparticles as well as animal studies of disease pathobiology using "state of the art" drug delivery systems. Coordinate drug testing (anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and anti-retroviral) in HIV-1 encephalitis (HIVE) and PD are pursued with adjunctive drugs distinct or part of the nanomedicine efforts.

This program is part of multiple National Institutes of Health grant efforts that involve scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy), the University of Rochester, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The focus is to perform translational research that would move quickly from animals to humans and currently involves human phase I testings.

Our neuroimmunologic and vaccine approaches have shown tremendous success in recent years for their abilities to induce protective immunity and protect against ongoing neurodegeneration. These are being pursued in animal models of HIVE, PD and ALS.

Our proteomic and metabolomic studies involve basic cell biology and molecular studies of virus-cell interactions in the setting of abused drugs.

All together this is a rich offering in scientific disciplines and relevant human disease models that can readily translate from the laboratory bench to the clinic.

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Representative Publications (h-index 104); selected from over 480:

1. Abdelmoaty MM, Yeapuri P, Machhi J, Olson KE, Shahjin F, Kumar V, Zhou Y, Liang J, Pandey K, Acharya A, Byrareddy SN, Mosley RL, Gendelman HE. Defining the Innate Immune Responses for SARS-CoV-2-Human Macrophage Interactions. Front Immunol. 2021 Oct 4;12:741502. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.741502. PMID: 34671355; PMCID: PMC8521106.
2. Kulkarni TA, Bade AN, Sillman B, Shetty BLD, Wojtkiewicz MS, Gautam N, Hilaire JR, Sravanam S, Szlachetka A, Lamberty BG, Morsey BM, Fox HS, Alnouti Y, McMillan JM, Mosley RL, Meza J, Domanico PL, Yue TY, Moore G, Edagwa BJ, Gendelman HE. 2020. A year-long extended release nanoformulated cabotegravir prodrug. Nature Materials. doi: 10.1038/s41563-020-0674-z. PMID: 32341511
3. Dash PK, Kaminski R, Bella R, Su H, Mathews S, Ahooyi TM, Chen C, Mancuso P, Sariyer R, Ferrante P, Donadoni M, Robinson JA, Sillman B, Lin Z, Hilaire JR, Banoub M, Elango M, Gautam N, Mosley RL, Poluektova LY, McMillan J, Bade AN, Gorantla S, Sariyer IK, Burdo TH, Young W-B, Amini S, Gordon J, Jacobson JM, Edagwa B, Khalili K, Gendelman HE. 2019. Sequential LASER ART and CRISPR Treatments Eliminate HIV-1 in a Subset of Infected Humanized Mice. Nature Communications 10:2753.
4. Su H, Cheng Y, Sravanam S, Mathews S, Gorantla S, Poluektova LY, Dash PK, Gendelman HE. 2019. Immune Activations and Viral Tissue Compartmentalization During Progressive HIV-1 Infection of Humanized Mice. Front Immunol 10:340. PMID: 30873181.
5. Thomas MB, Gnanadhas DP, Dash PK, Machhi J, Lin Z, McMillan J, Edagwa B, Gelbard H, Gendelman HE, Gorantla S. Modulating cellular autophagy for controlled antiretroviral drug release. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2018 Aug 21. doi: 10.2217/nnm-2018-0224. PMID: 30129397
6. Montenegro-Burke JR, Woldstad CJ, Fang M, Bade AN, McMillan J, Edagwa B, Boska MD, Gendelman HE, Siuzdak G. Nanoformulated Antiretroviral Therapy Attenuates Brain Metabolic Oxidative Stress. Mol Neurobiol. 2018 Aug 1. doi: 10.1007/s12035-018-1273-8. PMID: 30069830
7. Kevadiya BD, Woldstad C, Ottemann BM, Dash P, Sajja BR, Lamberty B, Morsey B, Kocher T, Dutta R, Bade AN, Liu Y, Callen SE, Fox HS, Byrareddy SN, McMillan JM, Bronich TK, Edagwa BJ, Boska MD, Gendelman HE. Multimodal Theranostic Nanoformulations Permit Magnetic Resonance Bioimaging of Antiretroviral Drug Particle Tissue-Cell Biodistribution. Theranostics. 2018 Jan 1;8(1):256-276. doi: 10.7150/thno.22764. eCollection 2018. PMID: 29290806. PMCID: PMC5743473. 
8. Li W, Gorantla S, Gendelman HE, Poluektova LY. Systemic HIV-1 infection produces a unique glial footprint in humanized mouse brains. Dis Model Mech. 2017 Dec 19;10(12):1489-1502. doi: 10.1242/dmm.031773. PMID: 29084769.  
9. McMillan J, Szlachetka A, Slack L, Sillman B, Lamberty B, Morsey B, Callen S, Gautam N, Alnouti Y, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE, Fox HS. Pharmacokinetics of a Long-Acting Nanoformulated Dolutegravir Prodrug in Rhesus Macaques. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 Dec 21;62(1). pii: e01316-17. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01316-17. Print 2018 Jan. PMID: 29061742. PMCID: PMC5740312. 
10. Zhou T, Su H, Dash P, Lin Z, Dyavar Shetty BL, Kocher T, Szlachetka A, Lamberty B, Fox HS, Poluektova L, Gorantla S, McMillan J, Gautam N, Mosley RL, Alnouti Y, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE. Creation of a nanoformulated cabotegravir prodrug with improved antiretroviral profiles. Biomaterials. 2018 Jan;151:53-65. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.10.023. Epub 2017 Oct 15. PMID: 29059541.
11. Mosley RL, Gendelman HE. T cells and Parkinson's disease.  Lancet Neurol. 2017 Oct;16(10):769-771. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30276-4. Epub 2017 Aug 11. PMID: 28807669.
12. Gendelman HE, Zhang Y, Santamaria P, Olson KE, Schutt CR, Bhatti D, Shetty BLD, Lu Y, Estes KA, Standaert DG, Heinrichs-Graham E, Larson L, Meza JL, Follett M, Forsberg E, Siuzdak G, Wilson TW, Peterson C, Mosley RL. Evaluation of the Safety and immunomodulatory Effects of Sargramostim in a Randomized, Double Blind Phase 1 Clinical Parkinson’s Disease Trial. NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2017 Mar 23;3:10. PMID: 28649610. PMCID: PMC5445595. 
13. Gnanadhas DP, Dash PK, Sillman B, Bade AN, Lin Z, Palandri DL, Gautam N, Alnouti Y, Gelbard HA, McMillan J, Mosley RL, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE, Gorantla S. Autophagy facilitates macrophage depots of sustained-release nanoformulated antiretroviral drugs.  J Clin Invest. 2017 Mar 1;127(3):857-873. PMID: 28134625.  PMCID: PMC5330738.
14. Guo D, Zhou T, Araínga M, Palandri D, Gautam N, Bronich T, Alnouti Y, McMillan J, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE. Creation of a Long-Acting Nanoformulated 2’,3’Dideoxy-3’-Thiacytidine.  J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 Mar 1;74(3):375-e83. PMID: 27559685. PMCID: PMC5305294
15. Bade AN, Gendelman HE, Boska MD, Liu Y.. MEMRI is a biomarker defining nicotine-specific neuronal responses in subregions of the rodent brain. Am J Transl Res. 2017 Feb 15;9(2):601-610. eCollection 2017. PMID: 28337287. PMCID: PMC5340694.
16. Araínga M, Edagwa B, Mosley RL, Poluektova LY, Gorantla S, Gendelman HE. A mature macrophage is a principal HIV-1 cellular reservoir in humanized mice after treatment with long acting antiretroviral therapy. Retrovirology. 2017 Mar 9;14(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s12977-017-0344-7. PMID: 28279181. PMCID: PMC5345240. 
17. Heinrichs-Graham E, Santamaria PM, Gendelman HE, Wilson TW. The cortical signature of symptom laterality in Parkinson's disease. Neuroimage Clin. 2017 Feb 12;14:433-440. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2017.02.010. eCollection 2017. PMID: 28271041. PMCID: PMC5322212 .
18. Edagwa B, McMillan J, Sillman B, Gendelman HE. Long-acting slow effective release antiretroviral therapy. Expert Opin Drug Deliv. 2017 Feb 6:1-11. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2017.1288212. PMID: 28128004.  PMCID: PMC5545165
19. Shahnaz G, Edagwa BJ, McMillan J, Akhtar S, Raza A, Qureshi NA, Yasinzai M, Gendelman HE. Development of mannose-anchored thiolated amphotericin B nanocarriers for treatment of visceral leishmaniasis.  Nanomedicine (Lond). 2017 Jan;12(2):99-115. PMID: 27879160. PMCID: PMC5144491.
20. Kevadiya BD, Bade AN, Woldstad C, Edagwa BJ, McMillan JM, Sajja BR, Boska MD, Gendelman HE. Development of europium doped core-shell silica cobalt ferrite functionalized nanoparticles for magnetic resonance imaging. Acta Biomater. 2017 Feb;49:507-520. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2016.11.071. Epub 2016 Dec 1. PMID: 27916740. PMCID: PMC5501313.
21. Embury CM, Dyavarshetty B, Lu Y, Wiederin JL, Ciborowski P, Gendelman HE, Kiyota T. Cathepsin B Improves ß-Amyloidosis and Learning and Memory in Models of Alzheimer's Disease. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol. 2016 Dec 13. PMID: 27966067.  PMCID: PMC5405105.

Additional publications in PubMed

Dr. Gendelman's biographical information
Visit Dr. Gendelman's laboratory
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