Dorothy E. Lewis

Dorothy E. Lewis, PhD

Manager, Faculty Development Program, Academic Institute
Houston Methodist


Faculty Development


Biography

Dr. Lewis is manager of the Houston Methodist Faculty Development Program. She develops and oversees faculty development programs, workshops, courses, and mentoring activities to help translational scientists develop their careers.

Dr. Lewis earned a PhD in Microbiology in 1978 at the University of Arizona. She continued her training in an NIH supported fellowship in the laboratory of Noel Warner at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine where she focused on autoimmune disease in mice. She also became an expert in flow cytometry. In 1982 she was appointed as instructor at Baylor College of Medicine, established her own lab as well as a school-wide flow cytometry facility. She began working on HIV Immunology by examining immune cells from patients who had an acquired immunodeficiency which later was recognized as HIV. She received her first NIH grant in 1985 to study CD8 T cell function in HIV infection. She was among the first to describe the aberrant function of these cells in HIV which indicated that they were “exhausted.” She was also the first to show in 1990 that HIV infected persons with AIDS had very high levels of HIV RNA transcription in the peripheral blood.

She received continuous support for her work in various aspects of HIV pathogenesis including an NIH MERIT grant from 2001-2012. She rose through the ranks at BCM and became a full professor in 2001, along with serving as graduate program director for the Department of Immunology. She received the Mark Dresden award in 2004 for her mentoring efforts at BCM as well as two community awards for HIV research and activity in 2001 and 2002.

Dr. Lewis moved to the University of Texas in 2009 and established a flow core facility for the Internal Medicine department. She taught in both medical school and graduate school at UT and developed a grant writing course for graduate students. She was a member of the AIDS virology study section from 1992-1996, served on the NIAID council from 2002-2006 and was a member and then chair of the AIP (AIDS Immunology and Pathogenesis) study section from 2007-2011. She was a member of a NIH Training and Workforce Diversity study section from 2012-2016. She was the Immunology core director of the BCM/UT Center for AIDS research and developed multiple immune assays for clinical use. In addition, she developed and ran a mentoring program for young investigators doing HIV research in Houston. Her recent work at UT focused on how immune cells interact with adipose tissue that lead to lipodystrophy and as a reservoir for latent HIV infection.

Description of Research

Dr. Lewis is interested in faculty development strategies including improving creative endeavors such as grant writing, manuscript writing and communication skills. She is focused on developing and implementing mentoring programs for both faculty and their mentees. She integrates faculty development services at Houston Methodist using innovative methods that promote translational excellence.

Publications

Reduced digestion of circulating genomic DNA in systemic sclerosis patients with the DNASE1L3 R206C variant
Skaug, B, Guo, X, Li, YJ, Charles, J, Pham, KT, Couturier, J, Lewis, DE, Bracaglia, C, Caiello, I, Mayes, MD & Assassi, S 2023, , Rheumatology (United Kingdom), vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 3197-3204. https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/kead050

Organization of the Immune System
Lewis, DE, Zieske, AW & Blutt, SE 2022, . in Clinical Immunology: Principles and Practice, Sixth Edition. Elsevier, pp. 17-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-7020-8165-1.00002-2

Viral load reduction in SHIV-positive nonhuman primates via long-acting subcutaneous tenofovir alafenamide fumarate release from a nanofluidic implant
Pons-Faudoa, FP, Di Trani, N, Sizovs, A, Shelton, KA, Momin, Z, Bushman, LR, Xu, J, Lewis, DE, Demaria, S, Hawkins, T, Rooney, JF, Marzinke, MA, Kimata, JT, Anderson, PL, Nehete, PN, Arduino, RC, Jagannadha Sastry, K & Grattoni, A 2020, , Pharmaceutics, vol. 12, no. 10, 981, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12100981, https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12100981

Viral load reduction in SHIV-positive nonhuman primates via long-acting subcutaneous tenofovir alafenamide fumarate release from a nanofluidic implant
Pons-Faudoa, FP, Di Trani, N, Sizovs, A, Shelton, KA, Momin, Z, Bushman, LR, Xu, J, Lewis, DE, Demaria, S, Hawkins, T, Rooney, JF, Marzinke, MA, Kimata, JT, Anderson, PL, Nehete, PN, Arduino, RC, Jagannadha Sastry, K & Grattoni, A 2020, , Pharmaceutics, vol. 12, no. 10, 981, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12100981

PACS1 is an HIV-1 cofactor that functions in Rev-mediated nuclear export of viral RNA
Liu, H, Hu, PW, Budhiraja, S, Misra, A, Couturier, J, Lloyd, RE, Lewis, DE, Kimata, JT & Rice, AP 2020, , Virology, vol. 540, pp. 88-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2019.10.004

Obesity and Fat Metabolism in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Individuals: Immunopathogenic Mechanisms and Clinical Implications
Godfrey, C, Bremer, A, Alba, D, Apovian, C, Koethe, JR, Koliwad, S, Lewis, D, Lo, J, McComsey, GA, Eckard, A, Srinivasa, S, Trevillyan, J, Palmer, C & Grinspoon, S 2019, , Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 220, no. 3, jiz118, pp. 420-431. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz118

Regulation of cyclin T1 during HIV replication and latency establishment in human memory CD4 T cells
Couturier, J, Orozco, AF, Liu, H, Budhiraja, S, Siwak, EB, Nehete, PN, Sastry, KJ, Rice, AP & Lewis, DE 2019, , Virology Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-019-1128-6

Lymphocytes upregulate CD36 in adipose tissue and liver
Couturier, J, Nuotio-Antar, AM, Agarwal, N, Wilkerson, GK, Saha, P, Kulkarni, V, Lakhashe, SK, Esquivel, J, Nehete, PN, Ruprecht, RM, Sastry, KJ, Meyer, JM, Hill, LR, Lake, JE, Balasubramanyam, A & Lewis, DE 2019, , Adipocyte, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 154-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/21623945.2019.1609202

Editorial: T cell alterations in adipose tissue during obesity, HIV, and cancer
Lewis, DE, Lysaght, J & Wu, H 2019, , Frontiers in immunology, vol. 10, no. MAY, 1190. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01190

Organization of the Immune System
Lewis, DE & Blutt, SE 2019, . in Clinical Immunology: Principles and Practice. Elsevier, pp. 19-38.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-7020-6896-6.00002-8

Chronic Inflammation in HIV Pathogenesis: Effects on Immune Cells, Organ Systems, and Systemic Consequences
Lewis, DE & Couturier, JP 2019, . in Translational Inflammation. Elsevier, pp. 111-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813832-8.00006-6

Chronic Inflammation in HIV Pathogenesis: Effects on Immune Cells, Organ Systems, and Systemic Consequences
Lewis, DE & Couturier, JP 2018, . in Translational Inflammation. Elsevier, pp. 111-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813832-8.00006-6

HIV-1 replication in CD4+ T cells exploits the down-regulation of antiviral NEAT1 long non-coding RNAs following T cell activation
Liu, H, Hu, PW, Couturier, J, Lewis, DE & Rice, AP 2018, , Virology, vol. 522, pp. 193-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2018.07.020

Adipocytes impair efficacy of antiretroviral therapy
Couturier, J, Winchester, LC, Suliburk, JW, Wilkerson, GK, Podany, AT, Agarwal, N, Xuan Chua, CY, Nehete, PN, Nehete, BP, Grattoni, A, Sastry, KJ, Fletcher, CV, Lake, JE, Balasubramanyam, A & Lewis, DE 2018, , Antiviral Research, vol. 154, pp. 140-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2018.04.002

Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 mediates elevated IL-6 signaling to promote chronic inflammation and multitissue damage in sickle cell disease
Zhao, S, Adebiyi, MG, Zhang, Y, Couturier, JP, Fan, X, Zhang, H, Kellems, RE, Lewis, DE & Xia, Y 2018, , FASEB Journal, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 2855-2865. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.201600788RR

HIV Persistence in Adipose Tissue Reservoirs
Couturier, J & Lewis, DE 2018, , Current HIV/AIDS Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 60-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-018-0378-z

PD-1 blocks lytic granule polarization with concomitant impairment of integrin outside-in signaling in the natural killer cell immunological synapse
Huang, Y, Chen, Z, Jang, JH, Baig, MS, Bertolet, G, Schroeder, C, Huang, S, Hu, Q, Zhao, Y, Lewis, DE, Qin, L, Zhu, MX & Liu, D 2018, , Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, vol. 142, no. 4, pp. 1311-1321.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2018.02.050

HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) induces fatty liver in mice via LXRa and PPARa dysregulation: Implications for HIV-specific pathogenesis of NAFLD
Agarwal, N, Iyer, D, Gabbi, C, Saha, P, Patel, SG, Mo, Q, Chang, B, Goswami, B, Schubert, U, Kopp, JB, Lewis, DE & Balasubramanyam, A 2017, , Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, 13362. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13835-w

Long-term Use of Proton Pump Inhibitors Is Associated with Increased Microbial Product Translocation, Innate Immune Activation, and Reduced Immunologic Recovery in Patients with Chronic Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Infection
Serpa, JA, Rueda, AM, Somasunderam, A, Utay, NS, Lewis, DE, Couturier, JP, Breaux, KG & Rodriguez-Barradas, M 2017, , Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 1638-1643. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix609

Treatment-Naïve HIV-Infected Patients Have Fewer Gut-Homing ß7 Memory CD4 T Cells than Healthy Controls
Fadul, N, Couturier, J, Yu, X, Kozinetz, C, Arduino, R & Lewis, DE 2017, , Southern Medical Journal, vol. 110, no. 11, pp. 709-713. https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000000730

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